Lubricant maker Shell has announced that it will collaborate with Infosys, a global IT consultancy, on speeding up datacentres’ adoption of immersion cooling technology.
Datacentres are typically energy intensive, and much of this energy is emitted from electronic equipment as heat that needs to be removed, usually through power-hungry air conditioning systems. Immersion cooling instead involves submerging the electronic equipment in a thermally conductive, dielectric liquid coolant. This can significantly shrink the power requirements of a datacentre.
Both companies are committed to implementing immersion cooling in their own datacentres. They will then offer the technology to third-party customers all over the world. The project will use a single-phase, synthetic coolant fluid that Shell has developed specially for immersion cooling, while Infosys will provide its offerings for generative artificial intelligence, which is a technology that immersion cooling will be able to help scale in a sustainable manner.
Shell Lubricants Vice President Aysun Akik said that Shell was sure that its technology for immersion cooling would play an important role in allowing datacentres to cut their energy requirements and deliver on their commitments to sustainability. He added:
“Based on Shell’s proprietary gas-to-liquids [GTL] technology, Shell Immersion Cooling Fluids can help cut costs, boost performance and reduce the environmental footprint of datacentre operations as part of an integrated solution. Working with Infosys to supplement our technology with digital solutions would bring complete datacentre optimisation toolkits to customers.”
He also said the company was thrilled at potentially being able to help datacentres to decarbonise.
