Lubrizol Chills Out with Liquid-Based Data Center Cooling
Everyones talking about where artificial intelligence is taking us, but few are discussing the immense amount of energy that will be needed to get there. Thats where Lubrizol comes in.
Cool operator: The global specialty chemicals company, with headquarters in Ohio, has a unique method of cooling IT in data centers, those behemoth facilities that power generative AI. As anyone whos used a computer for long periods of time knows, that equipment can get hot.
- To cool high-performance data centers graphics processing unitspowerful accelerators that enable AI and other technologies and can generate huge amounts of heatLubrizol employs immersion cooling, a method of heat removal that uses liquid.
- Its like a blacksmithwhen you try to remove heat from hot metal, you immerse it in cold water and the water removes the heat, Lubrizol Vice President of Corporate Innovation Abhishek Shrivastava told us.
- But at Lubrizol, we are immersing the computer chips in a formulated oil instead of water. These GPUs are working so hard with higher power consumption, they can actually melt if they get too hot. So, you need to remove the heat quickly and efficiently.
Why we need it: Most current data centers use air cooling, but their increasing workloads and processing capacitydriven by the fast-growing appetite for AIwill require something more efficient, Shrivastava said.
- Meanwhile, next-generation processing units will maintain a thermal design power (i.e., heat) of more than three times todays commonly used systems, according to Lubrizol.
- AI is needed for the futurefor economic development, for global leadership,Shrivastava said. It will come down to who can deploy it faster.
The tech: Lubrizol believes its method of immersion coolingwhich relies on nonconducting, dielectric fluids, or liquids that act as electrical insulatorsis the key to winning that race.
- As AI infrastructure is deployed [in the U.S.], there must be efficient cooling in place too, Shrivastava continued. Its going to require a lot of infrastructure-level investment.
- Up to 40% of data centers total annual energy consumption goes to their cooling systems, according to a by the Electric Power Research Institute. Lubrizols technology greatly reduces that percentage for its customers.
Getting started: Lubrizols immersion cooling technology has been deployed at multiple data centers, and the company is working with its customers to scale up installations. A lot of small players are using it, because if youre small, your risk is low and deployment is fast, but there are some large-scale deployments across the world including in China and the U.S. that show the big players have identified the value, Shrivastava said.
- Among the companys next steps: getting the solution deployed at larger centersthough that will take some time. Larger-scale operations need more data, more confidence in [new] technology, Shrivastava noted.
Years, not decades: In the long term, however, the cost-benefit analysis is very favorable, said Shrivastava, even with infrastructure development outlay. And Shrivastava foresees widespread use of the technology.
- Awareness of the need for high-powered, efficient cooling is growing. Were not talking about a matter of decades before its in wide use; its a matter of years and months.
The last word: The industry needs to pick up the pace on the data center cooling front, Shrivastava told the 51勛圖厙. Otherwise, were not going to realize the full potential of AI.
