In many data centres, water-cooled chillers are paired with an open or closed-circuit cooling tower for heat rejection.
Other options include dry coolers, hybrid fluid coolers and adiabatic fluid coolers. It is beneficial to evaluate all heat rejection options to optimise energy and water consumption.
In this case study, BAC was approached by a high-performance computing customer with 160MW operating power to provide a more sustainable cooling solution.
They had previously used open cooling towers with water-cooled chillers.
Critical priorities for the customer included minimising water usage while balancing energy consumption to support sustainability efforts, cooling for an increasing heat load in a smaller footprint and to meet system water temperature requirements without chillers at high loads and varying outside conditions.
In response, BAC recommended a chiller-less system utilising the HXVTM hybrid cooler. The HXV’s packaged evaporative and dry cooling features offered the water saving and energy efficient solution the customer desired.
The factory assembled unit also allowed for easier maintenance and serviceability for the operations team. They were able to easily access the cold-water basin, prime surface coil and drive system due to the crossflow design, large doors, and internal access platforms.
Additionally, the customer could perform faster inspections of the spray distribution system while the unit was in operation.
The HXV Hybrid Cooler not only addressed all the customer’s challenges and needs, but it also reduced annual energy costs and improved system efficiency. The HXV Hybrid Cooler helped achieve an estimated power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.136.
The HXV incorporates three modes of operation. It has the benefits of evaporative, adiabatic, and dry cooling in a water saving and energy efficient solution.
It maintains peak system performance for a variety of applications where water is scarce, water costs are high, uptime is critical, or plume is a concern. Further, it is an ideal solution where space is limited.
The HXV hybrid cooler offers up to 70 per cent water saving compared to an open cooling tower.
It also provides up to 60 per cent lower energy costs compared to air cooled systems due to evaporative cooling and BAC’s innovative combined flow design.
BAC said there is 25 per cent less maintenance than traditional fluid coolers due to dry operation and crossflow design.
Another benefit is up to 70 per cent chemical savings due to dry operation.