Role of Liquid Cooling in Paving the Way for Sustainable Data Centers
Data centers form the backbone of today’s digital world, powering everything from search engines to online gaming and social media; however, they are also large energy consumers, causing environmental and economic concerns.
To address these issues, liquid cooling systems, which utilize water or other liquids to transfer heat away from the system, have been proposed as an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional air-cooled systems.
This article will explore the advantages of liquid cooling systems and the ways in which they can be used to create energy-efficient or sustainable “green” data centers.
Data Center Liquid Cooling vs. Conventional Air Cooling
Liquid cooling systems work by using a liquid, such as water or a specialized coolant, to remove heat from the servers and other equipment in a data center. This is in contrast to traditional air-cooling systems, which use fans and air ducts to circulate cool air around the data center.
Liquid cooling systems are more efficient than air-cooled systems because they make use of the latent heat of vaporization of the liquid, which can dissipate more heat effectively than air-cooled systems, resulting in more efficient system operation.
Additionally, liquid cooling systems can help reduce energy losses because they make use of the thermal conductivity of the liquid itself. This means that they are able to transfer more heat from one component to another, resulting in less energy being lost to the environment.
The use of liquid cooling also helps reduce the space requirements of the data center, allowing for more efficient use of existing space.
Additionally, liquid cooling systems can be customized to suit a specific data center’s need, allowing for more efficient cooling of specific areas or components of the system, such as dissipating heat from high-performance processors, which air cooling systems can struggle with.
In addition to the energy savings associated with liquid cooling, green data centers also benefit from the decreased noise levels associated with liquid cooling systems. This can help create a more comfortable and productive working environment for the staff who operate the data center.
Liquid cooling systems can also be used to reduce the risk of fire, as the risk of an electrical fire is dramatically reduced in a liquid-cooled environment.
By using liquid cooling systems that utilize water or environmentally friendly coolants, the data center can reduce its carbon footprint while also reducing the amount of energy needed to cool the system.
Furthermore, the use of liquid cooling systems can help reduce the amount of waste that a data center generates, as the systems are more efficient and require less maintenance.
The data center liquid cooling market is expected to grow in the future owing to the increasing demand for efficient and sustainable cooling solutions in data centers and other key trends in the market.
As per the report by BIS Research, the global data center liquid cooling market was valued at $2.79 billion in 2021, which is expected to grow with a CAGR of 27.67% and reach $11.84 billion by 2027.
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Different Types of Liquid Cooling Techniques
A. Indirect Cooling
Indirect liquid cooling comprises techniques that involve no direct contact between the coolants and computing servers or components.
The heat is dissipated through conduction using metals such as copper and aluminum.
Indirect liquid cooling can be implemented using a closed-looped setup in which the heat transfer is moved closer to the racks and rows.
This system uses a sealed loop of tubing to circulate a coolant, such as water, through a radiator to dissipate heat. The coolant is pumped through the tubing and over the components to be cooled and then back to the radiator.
Indirect liquid cooling, integrated with a closed-looped setup, helps maintain a continuous flow of fluid throughout the circuit, which removes heat effectively.
In-Row Based — In this type of orientation, the heat sink and air-conditioning units are placed close to the rows of a rack or a cabinet.
In-Rack Based — The in-rack design ensures focused cooling at the rack level. The entire server cabinet or rack is cooled with a single AC unit or heat sink.
This configuration is often used as a hybrid cooling system (employing both air and fluid), which further increases the modularity and scalability of the system.
In-rack cooling can be very effective in retrofitting environments, where older infrastructure can be converted into modern data centers.
B. Direct Cooling
In direct liquid cooling techniques, the coolant and the components are in direct contact without any barrier.
The computing components may be completely or immersed in the cooling fluid.
Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling System
In this liquid cooling system, the cooling fluid boils into a gaseous state and is converted back to a liquid state through the use of a condenser coil.
This technique involves attaching a liquid-cooled heat sink directly to the surface of a chip, such as a CPU or GPU. The heat sink’s micro channels allow the coolant to come into direct contact with the chip, effectively removing heat.
Direct-to-chip liquid cooling can provide better thermal performance and can allow for higher-performance processors or increased density in data centers.
Immersion Cooling
Immersion cooling is a data center liquid cooling technology in which computing components are submerged in a liquid coolant.
The liquid, typically a dielectric fluid, is chosen for its high thermal conductivity and ability to remove heat from the submerged components.
The liquid also acts as insulation, protecting the components from electrical shorts. Immersion cooling allows for higher cooling efficiency and can enable higher performance and denser data center operations.
It also allows for the cooling of high-power devices such as Bitcoin mining rigs. However, it requires specialized hardware, and the liquid used must be carefully selected to ensure that it is non-conductive, non-corrosive, and has a high boiling point.
Single-Phase Immersion Cooling
In the single-phase immersion cooling system technology, server components are mounted vertically in a coolant bath of a hydrocarbon-based dielectric fluid.
The heat is transmitted to the coolant through immediate contact with server components. It stays in a liquid state even on heating and therefore degrades after a long period of 10 to 15 years.
Two-Phase Immersion Cooling
In two-phase cooling, the liquid fluid changes its state from liquid to gas when heated up and resumes its original state after condensation.
Special equipment, such as a condenser, is installed within the system, which helps in the transformation of the state.
This system is energy efficient as it does not require a forced flow of water; the cooling occurs in a closed environment.
What Steps Can Be Taken to Pave the Way for Green Data Centers?
Green data centers are data centers with minimal to zero carbon emissions; liquid cooling technology also plays a major role in deciding the PUE levels, and the average power usage effectiveness (PUE) of these data centers is below 1.4.
To manage the crisis of global warming and heightened carbon emissions from different industries such as IT and telecom, it has become a necessity to convert conventional data centers to green data centers.
In order to achieve sustainable goals, the following steps are necessary-:
1. Cloud Migration
Cloud migration can be defined as the process of moving and transferring data, applications, or other business elements from an organization’s on-premises infrastructure to a cloud computing environment.
The cloud environment can be a public cloud, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, or a private cloud, which is a cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization.
The main purpose of cloud migration is to take advantage of the scalability, flexibility, and cost savings that cloud computing can offer.
Moreover, moving to the cloud allows organizations to reduce their IT costs and improve their ability to scale their operations to meet changing business needs.
Cloud migration can also provide organizations with improved disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities, as well as greater flexibility in terms of where and how their data is stored.
The cloud service provider manages and monitors the server at its end, and consumers pay for the services.
This eliminates the complexity of managing physical computers and is cheaper compared to having physical systems.
2. Integration of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)
DCIM stands for data center infrastructure management. It is a set of software tools and processes that are used to monitor, manage, and optimize the various components of a data center’s infrastructure, including power, cooling, and network systems.
DCIM solutions typically provide a holistic view of the data center’s environment, allowing IT and facilities teams to monitor and manage the various components of the data center infrastructure in real time.
This includes monitoring power usage, temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors, as well as managing cooling systems and power distribution.
DCIM tools also provide the ability to track and manage inventory and assets, including servers, storage, and networking equipment.
This is a cost-effective technique to unburden data centers and allocate costs for sustainable options.
3. Adoption of Data Optimization Technologies
Data optimization technologies are a set of software and hardware solutions that are used to improve the performance, efficiency, and scalability of data storage and processing.
These technologies include data compression, data deduplication, data tiering, data caching, data replication, data compression and encryption, data archiving, and indexing and hashing.
Data compression reduces the amount of storage space required for data by removing redundant or unnecessary information.
Data deduplication removes duplicate copies of data, reducing the amount of storage space required and improving the efficiency of data backups and archiving.
Data tiering moves data automatically between different types of storage based on the frequency of access or other criteria.
Data caching stores frequently accessed data in high-speed memory, such as RAM, to improve the performance of data-intensive applications.
These technologies can be used in combination with data management systems, storage, and networking solutions to optimize data storage, processing, and retrieval and can be deployed in various types of environments, from on-premises data centers to cloud-based infrastructures.
These technologies can also be utilized to increase efficiencies in data center operations due to their optimizing capabilities.
4. Need for Efficient Infrastructure
Converged and hyperconverged infrastructure can be useful in reducing power consumption as they consolidate and optimize the use of resources, such as servers, storage, and networking.
By reducing the number of physical components required, they can lower energy consumption and improve overall efficiency. Thus, liquid cooling utilizes less energy as there are lesser components to power.
Additionally, many modern converged and hyperconverged infrastructure solutions include features such as power capping and management, which allow for further control and optimization of power usage.
5. Use of Renewable Energy
Another sustainable technique that data centers can utilize involves using renewable energy sources to power their liquid cooling systems.
Renewable energy is the most important characteristic of a green data center. This includes solar or wind power, which can significantly reduce the environmental impact of the data center.
For instance, data center-operating companies utilize a single type or multiple types of renewable energies to power their cooling systems and data operations.
· Sweden-based Telia Company uses hydroelectricity.
· U.S.-based Flexential uses wind energy.
· Green Mountain, based in Norway, uses hydroelectricity.
· Interxion, based in the Netherlands, uses multiple renewable energies, such as solar energy, hydro energy, and wind energy.
Conclusion
As energy demands for data centers continue to rise, the need for more efficient cooling solutions has become paramount. Data center liquid cooling systems are an integral part of ensuring a sustainable future for data centers.
Liquid cooling systems have the potential to revolutionize the way data centers are cooled, leading to more energy-efficient, “green” data centers.
By providing more efficient cooling, reduced noise levels, improved safety, and a decreased environmental impact, liquid cooling systems are paving the way for a more promising future for data centers.
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