Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 04 | Page 44

INTELLIGENT GREEN TECHNOLOGY

Selecting right cooling system can reduce global warming

With legislation recognising global warming effects of refrigerants, selecting the right mix is important for datacentres, presents Maurizio Frizziero at Schneider Electric.

The datacentre industry is poised for significant change in the refrigerants which are used in cooling systems, changes that you would do well to pay attention to in order to understand the implications for your own datacentre.

We have known for years, even decades, that refrigerants are harmful to the earth’ s ozone layer and impact on the global warming. So, we have been phasing out the harmful ones over time while constantly looking for effective, safe replacements, typically with no shortage of prodding from various governmental bodies.
First waves, around 2002 in Europe and more recently in North America and Asia, were to ban any blend which contributes to the ozone depletion, while recent and next standards are going to reduce the impact on the general increase of temperature generated by refrigerant leakages in the atmosphere. More recently, an accord to cut the worldwide use of a powerful planet-warming chemical used in airconditioners was signed.
Datacentres are no exception to this regulatory trend and, while the issues are quite clear, the solutions are far less so.
The two main refrigerants used in datacentre cooling systems today are R410A, used in small to medium-sized datacentres that require about 300- 400kW of cooling capacity per unit, and R134a, used in larger systems. The problem with both of them is they have a relatively high rating in terms of global warming potential, a measurement of environmental impact. While there are potential replacements for both of them that have lower global warming potential, they are not without issues of their own.
The most environmentally sound option would be to use natural refrigerants, meaning substances that occur naturally as opposed to manmade chemical compounds. The most common options are ammonia, propane and CO2, each of which have low global warming potential ratings, in fact, CO2 is the baseline by which global warming potential is measured.
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