With data centres‘ quench for water growing exponentially, a new study by the University of Texas at Austin has suggested that desalination technology could enable facilities to use salty or contaminated water for cooling.
The study, System-scale design and analysis of desalination systems for meeting water needs of data centres, which was published in Water Research X, examined various data centre scenarios to assess how various water treatment methods affect costs, energy consumption and environmental impacts.
“We’re not waiting for a futuristic technology to come along and solve this problem for us,” commented Vaibhav Bahadur, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering. “We can solve parts of this problem with the technology we already have; there’s just a cost to it.”
Ready-made solution?
As the report noted, data centres require vast amounts of water for cooling, while industrial facilities, such as oil and gas plants in Texas, generate large volumes of saline or contaminated water that has to be treated or disposed of. Combining these needs, it suggested, could provide an alternative to using freshwater for data centre operations.
“The Permian (Basin) puts out 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools per day, and right now this water is transported over long distances and injected underground,” Bahadur added. “This is problematic in many ways, including the risk of seismic activity.
“We’re also running out of space to bury that water, by as early as 2030. We need to find a way to use it, and cleaning it up for data centres is a great way to do that.”
Environmental impact
The research comes amid increased scrutiny of data centres’ environmental impact – Texas governor Greg Abbott ordered a pause on new data centre permits in September, in order to further evaluate their impacts on local communities. Elsewhere, the Texas Attorney General’s office recently announced a probe into water use of existing data centres.
“As they’re making important decisions about data centres, local officials often have no objective analysis of water, power usage and other important factors,” added Ning Lin, the Bureau of Economic Geology’s chief economist. “We hope to give decision-makers the tools they need to protect and benefit their communities.” Read more here.
