Immersion cooling for data centers
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The rise of the data economy is fundamentally changing the way we live and our always-on, highly-integrated world is pushing businesses to operate at an ever-increasing pace. Almost every aspect of our daily lives — smart devices, homes, cities and autonomous vehicles — relies on what is happening inside data centers.
However, these centers come at a tremendous cost in energy consumption, water use, footprint and more. It’s clear — we need faster, smarter, more energy-efficient and more sustainable data centers.
By transitioning data centers from traditional cooling methods to immersion cooling with 3M fluids, businesses can better prepare for the unprecedented performance requirements of the future while managing costs and the impact on our natural resources.
Enter what would otherwise be impossible — a new era of data centers.
Discover what 3M fluids can do for five different data center applications.
Immersion cooling with 3M™ Fluorinert™ Electronic Liquids and 3M™ Novec™ Engineered Fluids can help improve efficiency while reducing costs and dependency on natural resources center — from design and construction to maintenance and operations. A next-generation data center is right around the corner — let 3M science help get you there.
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Hyperscale
Strategy. Performance. Cost. Sustainability.
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Geographically and environmentally agnostic
Deploy data centers with more consistent cooling infrastructure globally, regardless of location decisions.
Simpler data center designs to scale more efficiently
Scale more efficiently with smaller data centers and simpler data center topologies (e.g., mechanical, electrical, networking). Simplify data center design by eliminating the need for complex airflow management.
Reduce capital and operational expenses
Address new workload needs while reducing capital expenditure by minimizing or eliminating air-cooling infrastructure (e.g., chillers, CRACs, CRAHs, PDUs, RPPs, telecom/networking, facility footprint). With increased cooling efficiency, electricity costs dedicated to ancillary cooling needs can be reduced.
Reduce Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and water usage
With PUEs as low as 1.03, build more power-efficient and sustainable data centers. Also, reduce or eliminate water waste with either single-phase or two-phase immersion cooling through the use of dry coolers.
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Supercomputing
Strategy. Performance. Cost. Sustainability.
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Greater performance and cooling efficiency
Support new or more compute-intensive workloads that traditional cooling solutions struggle to cool in an efficient and cost-effective way through an increase in floating point operations per second (FLOPS) per watt.
Reduce Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and water usage
With PUEs as low as 1.03, build more power-efficient and sustainable supercomputers. Also, eliminate water waste with two-phase immersion cooling through the use of dry coolers, and reduce or eliminate water waste with single-phase immersion cooling through the use of dry coolers.
Reduce operational expenses
With increased cooling efficiency, electricity costs dedicated to ancillary cooling needs can be reduced.
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Enterprise HPC
Strategy. Performance. Cost. Sustainability.
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Greater power and cooling efficiency
Support new or more compute-intensive workloads that traditional cooling solutions struggle to cool in an efficient and cost-effective way.
Lower latency
Help reduce delays by running latency-sensitive workloads in denser, space-optimized data centers or server closets closer to the user.
Increase hardware reliability
Lower junction temperatures as well as reduced temperature swings and hot spots increase the reliability of your operations. Mitigate common hardware failures by minimizing moving parts (e.g., fans) that are necessary for traditional cooling methods.
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Edge/5G
Strategy. Performance. Cost. Sustainability.
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Geographically and environmentally agnostic
Install edge systems with consistent cooling infrastructure globally, regardless of environmental variations (e.g., cold/hot, humid/dry). Denser form factors also better enable space- and weight-sensitive applications.
Roadmap to future power density needs
Deploy high-density edge units with small form factors engineered to support current and future workloads.
Lower latency
Help reduce delays by running latency-sensitive workloads in denser, space-optimized edge units closer to the user.
Extend life of assets
Sealed immersion-cooled units protect IT hardware from environmental contaminants such as dust and moisture. A reduction in moving parts also helps improve reliability and extends the life of edge units.
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Cryptocurrency
Strategy. Performance. Cost. Sustainability.
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Greater performance per watt
Gain an edge with immersion cooling by increasing hash rates through overclocking. Allocate more power toward mining and other profit-generating operations, given increased gains in cooling efficiency.
Reduce capital and operational expenses
Lower capital expenditure by minimizing or eliminating air-cooling infrastructure (e.g., chillers, CRACs, CRAHs, PDUs, RPPs, telecom/networking, facility footprint). With increased cooling efficiency, electricity costs dedicated to ancillary cooling needs can be reduced.
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Liquid cooling techniques enabled by 3M fluids
3M fluids can be used for single-phase and two-phase immersion cooling applications, as well as single-phase and two-phase direct-to-chip applications.
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Single-phase immersion cooling
In single-phase immersion cooling, fluid remains in its liquid phase. Electronic components are directly immersed in dielectric liquid in a sealed but readily-accessible enclosure where heat from electronic components is transferred to the fluid. Pumps are often used to flow the heated fluid to a heat exchanger, where it is cooled and cycled back into the enclosure.
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Two-phase immersion cooling
In two-phase immersion cooling, fluid is boiled and condensed, exponentially increasing heat transfer efficiency. Electronic components are directly immersed in dielectric liquid in a sealed but readily-accessible enclosure where heat from electronic components causes the fluid to boil, producing vapor that rises from the liquid. The vapor condenses on a heat exchanger (condenser) within the tank, transferring heat to facility water that flows outside of the data center.
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Direct-to-chip cooling
Direct-to-chip cooling rejects heat by pumping fluid through cold plates attached to electronic components. The fluid never makes direct contact with electronics. While non-dielectric fluids (e.g., water glycol) are often used in direct-to-chip cooling, dielectric fluids can be used in direct-to-chip applications to mitigate risks associated with leaks, increasing hardware/IT equipment reliability. Direct-to-chip cooling can be implemented using single-phase and two-phase technologies.
Discover the right 3M fluid for your liquid cooling needs
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Specialty fluids for data center liquid cooling applications
3M™ Fluorinert™ Electronic Liquids
3M™ Fluorinert™ Electronic Liquids have set the industry standard for direct-contact electronics cooling for over 60 years. These extremely inert, fully-fluorinated liquids have exceptionally high dielectric strength and excellent material compatibility. 3M™ Fluorinert™ Electronic Liquids are clear, odorless, non-flammable, non-oil-based, low in toxicity, non-corrosive, offer a wide temperature operating range and high thermal and chemical stability.3M™ Novec™ Engineered Fluids
3M™ Novec™ Engineered Fluids are non-flammable, non-oil-based, low in toxicity, non-corrosive, and have good material compatibility and thermal stability. They also have a low global warming potential (GWP) and zero ozone depletion potential (ODP), giving data center owners an innovative, trusted and sustainable solution for their two-phase immersion cooling and direct-to-chip-cooling applications.
Immersion cooling frequently asked questions
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What is immersion cooling?
Immersion cooling is a method for cooling data center IT hardware by directly immersing the hardware in a non-conductive liquid such as 3M™ Fluorinert™ Electronic Liquids or 3M™ Novec™ Engineered Fluids. Heat generated by the electronic components is directly and efficiently transferred to the fluid. This reduces the need for interface materials, heat sinks, fans, shrouds, sheet metal and other components that are common in traditional cooling methods.
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What are the benefits of immersion cooling compared to air-cooling?
Immersion cooling with 3M fluids offers many benefits compared to traditional air cooling, including increased thermal efficiency (i.e., lower PUE), performance and reliability of data centers. Immersion cooling also eliminates the need for complex airflow management. Optimized immersion-cooled data centers can lead to reductions in capital and operating expenses, as well as a reduction in construction time and complexity. The increased compute density from immersion cooling allows for more flexible data center layouts and removes barriers to data center location choices such as areas with high real estate costs or space limitations. Finally, immersion cooling with 3M fluids can help eliminate the tradeoff between water usage, energy efficiency and cost by eliminating the need for chillers with economizers and complex controls used in air cooling. This helps eliminate the use of water needed to cool the data center by, instead, utilizing natural water temperatures in many climates to allow for full capacity cooling without evaporation infrastructure.
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What is the difference between immersion cooling and direct-to-chip cooling?
Immersion cooling involves directly immersing IT hardware in a sealed but readily-accessible enclosure filled with dielectric liquid. Heat generated by the electronic components is directly transferred to the fluid. With direct-to-chip cooling, fluid never comes in direct contact with the electronics. Instead, direct-to-chip cooling uses pipes to pump a liquid coolant to cold plates that sit on electronic components to transfer heat.
Both immersion cooling and direct-to-chip cooling can be implemented using single-phase and two-phase methods using 3M fluids. -
What are common ways in which immersion cooling can be implemented?
There are two common immersion cooling configurations: tank-style and clamshell.
Tank-style immersion cooling uses dielectric fluid as the heat transfer medium in a sealed but readily-accessible tank. This eliminates the need for hermetic connectors, pressure vessels, seals and clamshells. The servers must be vertically installed inside the tank.
In the clamshell design, server electronics are sealed within the server chassis. Dielectric fluid is circulated through the entire server enclosure, removing heat from the electronic components. The clamshell design is typically implemented with servers inserted horizontally into a rack. -
What are some considerations for choosing between single-phase and two-phase immersion cooling?
There are several key factors worth considering when deciding between single-phase and two-phase immersion cooling.
Single-phase immersion cooling systems feature simpler tank designs and easier fluid containment. Material compatibility and fluid hygiene are also less challenging in single-phase compared to two-phase immersion cooling.
Implementing passive two-phase immersion cooling systems enables greater heat transfer efficiency through the boiling process (through the liquid to vapor phase change) compared to single-phase immersion cooling, allowing for greater power densities with two-phase immersion cooling (up to 250-500 kW/tank). Furthermore, the cooling infrastructure required to support two-phase immersion cooling is typically less complex, as additional adiabatic cooling beyond a dry cooler is not necessary. -
What categories of fluids can I use for single-phase immersion cooling?
Both fluorochemicals (or fluorocarbons) and hydrocarbons (e.g., mineral oils, synthetic oils, natural oils) can be used for single-phase immersion cooling. Fluids with a higher boiling point (above the maximum temperature of system) are necessary to ensure the fluid remains in liquid phase.
Considerations when deciding among various fluorochemicals and hydrocarbons include: heat transfer performance (stability and reliability over time, etc.), ease of IT hardware maintenance, fluid hygiene and replacement needs, material compatibility, electrical properties, flammability or combustibility, environmental impact, safety-related issues and total fluid cost over the lifetime of the tank or data center. -
What categories of fluids can I use for two-phase immersion cooling?
Fluorochemical fluids, generally with a lower boiling point, are predominantly used for two-phase immersion cooling. Hydrocarbons typically are not used for two-phase immersion cooling systems, as most hydrocarbons are combustible and/or flammable. Therefore, hydrocarbons are typically only used in single-phase applications.
Considerations when deciding among various fluorochemicals include: impact on IT performance (consistency, reliability, etc.), ease of IT hardware maintenance, fluid hygiene and replacement needs, material compatibility, electrical properties, flammability or combustibility, environmental impact, safety-related issues and total fluid cost over the lifetime of the tank or data center.
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Myth or fact?
Our experts debunk some common myths involving immersion cooling and 3M fluids.
Immersion cooling resources
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Explore best practices relating to tank design and construction (e.g., materials, lid/sealing), IT hardware preparation, fluid conditioning and removal of contamination, moisture management and vent and pressure control.
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DataDriven Immersion Cooling YouTube Short_VDESC_en_US A piano plays over footage of server farms and executives interviewing. ON SCREEN TEXT: Laura Nereng Sustainability Leader, 3M Electronics and Energy Business Group LAURA NERENG: When it comes to data center operations, about 38% of the electricity you need to run the operation is just to cool the electronics. ON SCREEN TEXT: 38% of each data center's energy usage is for air cooling electronics. ON SCREEN TEXT: Lucas Beran Senior Research Analyst, IHS Markit LUCAS BERAN: We're then coming to crossroads where we're going to need something new, you know, something different to help maintain and reduce that energy footprint. Lights blink behind bundles of wires in a server. ON SCREEN TEXT: What is data center immersion cooling? ON SCREEN TEXT: Dale Sartor Professional Engineer, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory DALE SARTOR: Immersion cooling actually submerges the IT equipment in a liquid, so that the liquid is coming in contact with the electronic equipment. You go 'whoa, wouldn't there be sparks would be flying,' well the liquid that we're using is a non-conductive fluid, and therefore that can touch the IT equipment and cool it directly. Equipment sits submerged in bubbling clear liquid. Then, a hand slides a motherboard in with other IT equipment in a compartment filled with liquid. More equipment gets lowered into a pool. ON SCREEN TEXT: Bruce Taylor EVP North America, Data Center Dynamics BRUCE TAYLOR: Fluid immersion is where you have fewer mechanical moving parts, fewer electronics. Everything about it is simpler. Bubbles swarm up from vents in submerged IT equipment. Rows of servers stand in an empty room, then servers are shown in a container of cooling liquid. ON SCREEN TEXT: Reducing Costs and Land Use LUCAS BERAN: The real savings with immersion cooling is with the operational expenses and can essentially cut your cooling costs in half. It not only allows you to move to high density applications that previously data centers would have a hard time cooling, but can do so on a cost effective way. More servers are lowered into non-conductive liquids, and wires snake down into bubbling tanks. LAURA NERENG: Instead of spreading out the electronics so that you can air cool it, you just pack 'em together because it's gonna be cooled through this fluid. A illustration shows wide rows of servers being combined into a single row. LAURA NERENG: You can take what was going to take 100% of the space and put it in 10% of the space. And being able to reduce the electricity usage for cooling by 95%. An image shows rows of pipes. ON SCREEN TEXT: Up to 95% reduction in cooling costs. ON SCREEN TEXT: Kar-Wing Lau CEO, Allied Control KAR-WING LAU: And this allows it of course to shrink down the entire data center size to only fraction of what it would be if it were to run the data center with traditional air cooling. Footage shows construction of a warehouse. ON SCREEN TEXT: Shrink physical footprint by 10x. The near-finished warehouse is shown from above. A rack of chip boards is lowered into fluid. ON SCREEN TEXT: Immersion Cooling into the Future ON SCREEN TEXT: Phillip Tuma Advanced Application Development Specialist, 3M PHILLIP TUMA: It provides a lot of things the other technologies cannot. Number one, it's very very simple. We can elminate all the engineering resources that go into these complex networks of plumbing within the server and within the rack and even within the data center. A view ranges over tanks of immersion-cooled equipment. Liquid pours from a bucket into a container of servers. Then, bubbles shoot up from liquid beneath coils of green, orange, and white wires. PHILLIP TUMA: You have best-in-class power density coupled with best-in-class energy efficiency and dramatically simplified design. So those things should bode well for the technology in the future. KAR-WING LAU: Personally of course it's very interesting making potentially a big impact on the carbon footprint of data centers in the world. Not only something for our generation but hopefully also for the next generation, so that we have a more sustainable, more energy efficient data centers. ON SCREEN TEXT: 3M Science. Applied to Life.™ A disclaimer appears.
Video: See immersion cooling in actionWatch behind-the-scenes video to see how single-phase and two-phase immersion cooling systems work. Plus, learn how immersion cooling using 3M fluids can support higher computing power density and performance than air cooling in less than 10 percent of the space.
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Traditional data centers use an average of 40 percent of their energy just on cooling, plus billions of gallons of water. Explore a world where that could change, backed by new innovations in heat transfer and thermal management technology.
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BitFury’s 40+ MW, 1.02 PUE immersion-cooled cryptocurrency data center achieves up to 250 kW per tank or up to 100 kW per m2 using Novec 7100.
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Learn more about how 3M fluids can help you meet your data center liquid cooling needs.
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