Data centers are infrastructures that have a negative reputation for using high electrical power, power generators buzzing day and night, and using high amounts of water. Various technologies have been developed to reduce water consumption such as only closed-cycle systems and using reclaimed water.
Researchers from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) have developed a palm oil-based immersion cooling fluid called Sawit EcoTherm for use by data centers. It offers waterless cooling, replacing evaporative cooling towers. Immersion cooling systems can also reduce energy consumption by 30-50%.
Palm Oil EcoTherm contains up to 95% palm-based renewable biomaterials, is PFAS-free, readily biodegradable, and has low ecological toxicity.
Currently, only about 1% of the world’s data centers use immersion cooling fluid cooling systems. This is because while water and energy consumption can be reduced, the maintenance process of liquid-cooled data centers is higher because the components are immersed all the time. The use of disk storage is also not recommended for the same reason.
