2023-12-14 15:16:46
The importance of data centers in the digital world:
A data center is an essential infrastructure for the digital world which is characterized by data storage. Data centers are made up of a set of IT equipment including servers, network switches, routers, cooling and memory systems, etc.
There are three types of data centers:
– The first type is the on-site corporate data center, meaning that the data center is located at the heart of the company in order to maintain optimal data management.
– The second model is the cloud data center which relies on multiple use of data by several actors.
– The last is the managed data center, which represents a service which will host computer data which will be intended for several clients.
The purpose of these structures is to guarantee the security of systems against possible computer intrusions such as cyberattacks.
The expansion of data centers is constantly evolving, in September 2022 France is positioned in 8th place with 264 data centers.
Operation of data centers:
The operation of data centers is an important topical subject since they are essential but energy-consuming, which poses certain problems in the face of different energy crises.
To ensure their proper functioning and for safety reasons, it is not possible to cut off the electricity supplies to these structures.
Storage systems must be perpetually powered on so that remote users can access their information. This need for continued accessibility has several repercussions: continuous systems create heat, however, the temperature in the building must not exceed 20 degrees in order to avoid all types of malfunction or degradation of the equipment.
The energy consumption of these structures is so significant that it represents 2 to 3% of global electricity consumption for the year 2022.
But other resources are used for the proper functioning of these structures. Indeed, to guarantee the cooling of the various servers, significant quantities of water and chemicals are used. These essential cooling methods contribute to increased energy consumption, resulting in an undeniable energy impact.
It has been shown that a data center of approximately 10,000 square meters is equivalent to the consumption of 50,000 people, the digital world represents 4% of greenhouse gases in 2023, placing it even before air transport.
Many companies have therefore become concerned about this situation and have looked into the problem in order to find alternatives to these cooling methods.
The innovation of the ITrium company
In the remainder of this article we will particularly look at the future disruptive technology developed by the company ITrium.
This new cooling method uses a non-toxic, biological and non-flammable fluid in a closed circuit allowing its reuse.
The dielectric liquid bath method aims to respond to numerous solutions. In particular the desire to reduce electricity consumption caused by intangibles. Indeed, by 2030, the Internet risks becoming one of the biggest energy guzzlers on the planet. In order to overcome this, the Itrium company thought of the system of dielectric liquid baths. These baths will allow data centers to be immersed in non-conductive oils in order to ensure cooling of the oil. These oils must be sufficiently insulating to avoid short circuits. The company wants to use cooking or drain oils used in particular in Airbus.
Data centers are not only energy-intensive due to their use but above all because of the need to cool them. Indeed, it is then necessary to use a suitable air conditioning system in order to reduce this constant heat. The Itrium company has implemented a cooling system that does not require the use of air conditioners.
The company wants to immerse data centers in oil to reduce the heat emitted by data centers.
The system will revolve around an exchanger allowing the connection between the fluid and the data centers. The purpose of an exchanger is to transfer heat from one fluid to another, without the two fluids mixing. This will allow the oil to cool the electrical systems without oil entering the circuits. The heat will therefore be transmitted to the liquid. However, as the oil temperature may increase, you will need to consider using a heat sink. Hence the solution of using the heat to heat something else such as homes or even an entire neighborhood.
This process will also make it possible to recycle used oils in order to considerably reduce the electricity consumption of data centers by 40 to 60%. In addition, this would make it possible to recover heat in order to run an office with electricity or even an eco-district by recycling heat. This technique will also help improve the efficiency of data centers. It will be easier to find premises to install these data centers, as they will take up much less space than air-conditioned data centers. It will also significantly reduce data center noise.
Therefore, less air pollution, recycling of waste oils, less noise pollution, less pollution from massive installations. We are talking about a possible saving of 1.23 GW/h per year according to Fabien DOUCHET’s thesis.
Article co-written by: Madvee Annasawmy, Antoine Larosa and Clara Balducci
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