The meteoric rise of AI is causing some fundamental changes in how data centres are designed and operated. Not least is the way in which facilities are cooled, with an increasing transition from traditional air-based systems to liquid-based cooling as rack density ramps up.

As liquid cooling is more efficient at heat dispersal, it is becoming seen as more of a necessity by data centre players despite the generally cheaper initial cost and simplicity of installing fan- and air-conditioning-based air cooling systems.

Indeed, some recent estimates suggest that the global data centre liquid-cooling market could grow from a value of less than $5 billion last year to $20 billion by the early 2030s, helping to slash the amount of energy used for cooling facilities by as much as 40%.

Expanding sector

More specifically, direct-to-chip liquid cooling is being seen as an increasingly appealing option to apply cooling directly to the heat source. As a supplier of direct-to-chip cooling management solutions, Ecolab, a global sustainability company offering water, hygiene and infection-prevention services to organisations in more than 40 industries, has thus seen the data centre segment as one of its fastest-expanding sectors.

“This is one of our main growth areas within Ecolab,” says Claudia Thallauer, VP of sales for the EU at the company. “The presence of high-density racks is increasing in data centres, raising the thermal load and causing this direct-to-chip opportunity to come up more and more.”

Ecolab has developed a wide presence across the industry, working with more than 1,000 data centres worldwide. Through its 3D TRASAR technology, for example, the company offers a direct-to-chip treatment and management programme designed to monitor coolant health by measuring key quality parameters to optimise asset performance.

“While the majority of sites are still air-cooled, as the demand for capacity and power is increasing with AI and machine-learning technologies, there’s a need for chips to work at a far higher temperature that air physically can’t cool enough alone,” says David McKune, EU corporate account manager at Ecolab.

Water know-how

McKune highlights that players in the data centre sector can benefit from having a partner with a long-standing, deep history in water and sustainability, with Ecolab having been around for more than a century.

“We’re not a company that just sells you a box and then leaves you to it,” adds McKune. “We have the technology to monitor these systems and the water quality, and also the knowledge to react to what we see. Some might sell a probe to monitor water quality, but that doesn’t then give you a solution. In contrast, we can provide monitoring in real time, optimise it and support the industry in driving solutions.”

To enable this support, Ecolab has nine analytical labs globally staffed with more than 200 experts who carry out over 800 types of analysis and process 400,000 samples annually.

Thallauer expands on the data centre industry’s growing need for partnering with specialists in water, teaming up with experts that have a long history in the sector. “We see more and more that chip producers, data centre operators and companies building data centres are looking for a water expert to help,” she says.

She also points to Ecolab having a large division that focuses on regulation, enabling it to stay ahead of changes in legislation on water use, and develop products and services in line with the likely direction of future rulings. This means the company can also advise customers on what combinations of water sources will work best in different situations.

In addition, Ecolab aligns its offerings with the environmental, social and governance commitments of its customers, which are working towards goals in 2030 and beyond.

Striking a balance

One challenge for data centre operators is getting the balance of liquid and methods used for cooling appropriate based on where in the world a facility operates – whether that’s optimising the proportion of reclaimed ‘grey water’ in locations with little rain like the Middle East or capturing more rainwater in human-made rooftop lagoons in Europe.

Again, Ecolab can step in here given its history and wide experience globally, providing tailored advice based on different levels of water quality and availability. “Hyperscalers and other data centre players can’t build up all the water expertise around the world by themselves,” says Thallauer. “We’re a global partner that can deliver expertise around the world, from Asia to North America, Europe and Latin America.”

McKune explains how data collected from the company’s analysis of water sources in a certain location can be harnessed to aid actionable insight and inform decisions. “We would give those figures to the end user or design engineer,” he says. “They will then do the calculations on what’s needed for the cooling systems they could use, and then it becomes a power-to-cost-benefit analysis.”

On top of that, Ecolab provides glycol monitoring capabilities for those veering towards use of the chemical for liquid cooling because of properties like the protection it can offer against freezing and corrosion compared with water, despite the latter’s superior heat-transfer properties.

As part of its 3D TRASAR Technology for Direct-to-Chip Liquid Cooling, which has an AI-ready data centre design, the company provides leak detection to help preserve uptime and measures key parameters to assess coolant health – including glycol concentration, pH, turbidity and conductivity levels, flow rate and temperature.

McKune explains that this type of ongoing monitoring is important because glycol is not a “fill it and forget it” cooling solution, with its degradation instead potentially leading to corrosion and asset deterioration, and leaks that may damage IT equipment.

Meeting challenges

With its offerings and support for direct-to-chip cooling, Ecolab can help customers overcome industry challenges such as limitations on knowledge about how glycol and water behave in high-stress environments, and lack of on-site expertise about direct-to-chip applications and the types of hazards they can cause.

Combined with the company’s widespread and long-standing knowledge in water, this expertise can be an invaluable help to customers. “End users see a real benefit in working with us on this partly because we’re not just doing it for their industry, but for multiple industries in each country, so we have to have an understanding on what roadblocks there will be across many sectors,” says McKune.

Thallauer explains that data centre players stand to benefit from working with an expert in water from the very start of designing facilities to build in optimised methods, with Ecolab ready to work with partners end-to-end to understand their modelling, and what kind of mix of liquid supply and strategy they want to adopt.

The duality of AI

At the same time as AI is ramping up demands on data centres, it is itself enabling the development of innovative methods to advance water conservation. This is reflected in Ecolab’s recent work alongside carrier-neutral data centre provider Digital Realty to pilot an AI-driven water conservation system in 35 US facilities.

When fully implemented, the pilot is expected to help cut water use by up to 15%, while extending equipment life and avoiding the withdrawal of up to 126 million gallons of potable water from local watersheds annually.

Like its efforts to aid improvements in chip efficiency, this is at the core of Ecolab’s strategy to boost performance at the same time as enhancing sustainability. Though it’s hard to predict how the industry will evolve in light of AI’s rapid development, getting the support of the right water expert for direct-to-chip cooling is key to future-proofing as far as possible while data centre players roll out new facilities and retrofit existing ones.

And Ecolab believes it is ready for any scenarios that may unfold. “Ecolab focuses on maximising performance while minimising impact on our planet. We also help data centres to minimise their fresh water use and maximise their use of reclaimed sources,” says Thallauer. “I think we’re well-prepared for anything that’s coming.”