09/07/2026 by Jay Hatton
Valvoline Global, Gray and Gray AES have together announced a whitepaper outlining the importance of including a fluid coolant strategy when designing new data centres.
The paper, titled “Designing & Building Data Centers for the Shift to Liquid Cooling”, discusses liquid cooling and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Data centres have traditionally used air cooling, but the growth in artificial intelligence (AI) has dramatically raised power consumption. Traditional CPU-based racks typically consume around 3 to 12 kW (kilowatts), while AI workloads rely heavily on GPU racks, which perform many operations in parallel and can draw 30 to 50 kW or more within the same footprint.
In the paper’s introduction, Dave Baptiste, Gray’s MEP services senior project manager, says that air cooling hits a practical limit at a particular computing density. He added:
“The heat load from today’s high-powered GPUs would demand such high airflow volumes that the data hall begins to approach wind-tunnel conditions. Considerations such as sizing air handling equipment for large airflow rates, increased ductwork/plenum sizing, developed laminar flow and noise become major design concerns.”
Valvoline has long had experience in manufacturing coolant technology, while Gray and Gray AES bring expertise in designing and building data centres. The whitepaper emphasises the need to plan facilities around the use of liquid cooling, starting with hybrid air–liquid cooling systems. It says that many design decisions can affect the effectiveness of liquid cooling, so early collaboration is necessary to reap the full benefits of it.
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