Demonstration of Innovative New IT Cooling System

Page is part of a team researching the application of innovative IT cooling systems typically reserved for exotic IT deployments in more mainstream data centers. The cooling solution, two-phase liquid immersion cooling, can support densities 300% greater than high density air-cooled servers, while operating with a 20% energy savings over compressorized mechanical cooling, and with zero water consumption. The team presented the results of the first phase of the research project for the third time in recent weeks at the Open Compute Summit in San Jose, updating the content from earlier conferences Data Center Dynamics and Data Center World. Among the remarks elicited, one person stated, “It’s hard to believe the industry has come this far.”

Cooling systems for IT, or data centers, are essential to keep computing systems cool enough for continuous operation. Examples of the services data centers support include wireless communications, banking transactions, airline route tracking, geotechnical subsurface modeling, genome mapping, cryptocurrency mining, artificial intelligence and more. Other entities such as hospitals, universities and chain retailers also rely on them.  

The team, which includes 3M, Structure Tone, Allied Control, and BCER Engineering’s Technology group, conducted a small-scale demonstration of two phase liquid immersion cooling of high density IT equipment. This technology was recently implemented in cryptocurrency mining data centers, but has not yet found use in more conventional applications. The below video shows a segment of the demonstration.

The research team undertook a project to design a “conventional, high efficiency air-cooled data center”, and provide a comparison to an equivalent “two phase liquid immersion data center”. The project compared site requirements, MEP infrastructure, IT infrastructure, construction cost, operating cost, and construction schedule. While best in class High Performance Compute applications today can support approximately 90-100 kW per rack, the two-phase liquid immersion cooling solution is currently supporting 250 kW in an equivalently sized tank.

For more information on this innovative IT cooling system, contact Page Principal John Major by clicking here.

To learn more about Page’s mission critical and data center work, click here.

To learn more about the Page Science / Technology market sector, click here.