Jason Wong, Global Executive Vice President, Shell Lubricants, said: “Upgrading existing air-cooling methods with immersion fluids can reduce data centre energy use by up to 48%, as well as help reduce capital and operating expenditure by up to 33%1.”
“We have been working with Intel for the last two years to certify our immersion cooling fluids, which have the potential to transform the way that data centres are cooled and how much energy they use.”
Extensive testing by Intel showed that Intel Xeon processors remain as reliable with Shell’s immersion cooling fluids as with traditional air-cooled systems.
Immersion cooling involves servers and networking equipment being placed in electrically non-conductive fluid. The specialised liquid absorbs and dissipates heat from IT equipment more than one thousand times more efficiently than air-cooling2.
With no need for coolers, chillers, fans or evaporative cooling systems, immersion cooling fluids can cut the floor space needed for a data centre by up to 80%2.
“We’re pleased to be partnering with Shell in accelerating the adoption of more sustainable and energy-efficient solutions for data centres,” said Karin Eibschitz Segal, corporate vice president and interim general manager of the Data Centre Group at Intel. “Through these advancements we’re paving the way for the next generation of high-performance, environmentally conscious computing.”
According to the International Energy Agency, energy consumption from data centres currently accounts for 1.5% of global electricity demand and is expected to double from 415 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to around 945 TWh by 2030. This is mainly driven by the growth in Artificial Intelligence (AI)3.
Conventional cooling systems typically account for around 30-40%4 of a data centre’s energy demand. Shell’s immersion cooling fluids can be retrofitted to existing data centres, as well as allowing new data centres to use space more efficiently.
As the world’s top lubricants supplier3, Shell is investing in new products such as fluids for electric cars, battery storage systems and data centres. This focus is aligned with Shell’s strategy to grow sales of premium, high value products while helping our customers meet their own emission reduction goals.
