The rise of liquid immersion
cooling and the benefits it offers
Liquid immersion
cooling is increasing in
popularity due to the
efficiencies it offers
organisations when
considered against
traditional cooling
methods. Diarmuid
Daltún, CCO, Submer
Technologies, tells
us more about the
technology and the
benefits it offers.
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What challenges are data centre
operators encountering when it
comes to power and cooling? What is liquid immersion
cooling and how is it addressing
these challenges?
The solutions data centre operators
have in place today are very inefficient –
they are using way more electricity and
energy than they should be. They are
also coming to the limit of how much
they can put in the space of one rack
space or one cabinet. With air, they are
able to cool up to 30kW, but only by
using a mix of methods, such as forced
air and rear door cooling. LIC is a method of cooling hardware
by having it immersed directly in the
primary coolant. In Submer’s case, the
coolant is circulated actively around the
hardware, taking the heat away from
every component (any component which
consumes electricity, generates heat).
LIC IS A METHOD
OF COOLING
HARDWARE
BY HAVING
IT IMMERSED
DIRECTLY IN
THE PRIMARY
COOLANT.
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Issue 08
The heat is then passed out from the
coolant to a secondary cooling loop
which is typically a closed water system
connected to a dry cooler or a method
of heat reuse (e.g. district heating or
building heating).
What kind of data centre operators
are utilising this method?
The initial interest is coming from HPC, since
they are facing the cooling challenge on a
daily basis, due to their dense workload.
The LIC method is also thought for any
application which is used for research
purposes which is likely to put strain on
the limits of air cooling (e.g. AI, baking,
enterprise, hyperscaler, etc.).
How scalable are liquid immersion
cooling solutions?
Speaking of Submer, our solution is very
easily and modularly scalable. Each
Submer tank (SmartPod) can dissipate
>50kW and can be deployed anywhere,
without any preparation of the site.
You can place them next to each other or
back to back (according to your facility
needs) since they occupy very little space
compared to air-cooled racks.
How does immersion cooling
differ from water cooling?
Water cooling is a very broad topic. Direct
liquid cooling (water piped directly to
some components, such as GPU, CPU,
etc.) for example, requires a specific
type of hardware and another method of
cooling inside the building.
Direct liquid cooling deals typically with
70% of the heat. Immersion cooling deals
with the entire heat footprint, doesn’t care
about the shape of the equipment and
doesn’t need to be specifically prepared (it
only requires a hardware with no moving
parts, such as fans).
www.intelligentdatacentres.com