Liquid Cooling Technology for Data Centres

Cooling technology is evolving to meet the growing demands of high-performance computing in data centres and HVAC Systems. Driven by the expansion of large-scale facilities, the increasing demand for data processing and cooling is driving the development of liquid cooling technology as the solution to meet the precise thermal demand for existing and future facilities.

Liquid cooling improves energy efficiency and reduces the need for large cooling units. It lowers operational costs and minimises environmental impact. Innovative liquid cooling strategies can be applied to different data centre setups and systems. This paper will explore how liquid cooling accelerates thermal management for improved sustainability.

The data centre industry has a sustainable future. It is growing, and cooling technologies and environmentally sustainable practices within this growth are becoming increasingly critical. Moreover, advancements in cooling technologies, such as direct liquid cooling and improved airflow management, help reduce the energy intensity of data centre operations.

Rate of liquid cooling in future

Analysts predict that within five years, nearly 40% of data centre loads will rely on liquid cooling, a significant increase from the current 10% adoption rate, driven by the increasing demand for AI hardware, says Amod Ranade, Vice President and General Manager (Asia Pacific) at Green Revolution Cooling. New GPUs are launched every year—sometimes multiple times within a single year. This rapid pace of innovation is due to advancements in chip development itself.

Chip design has evolved far beyond the traditional single-die approach. Intel, for example, introduced layered chip designs nearly five years ago, stacking components like a sandwich. This shift enables chips to grow in two dimensions and thicknesses, leading to greater performance density. Due to modularisation, the typical chip development cycle has decreased to less than a year, resulting in the H100 and B100 being launched in under 12 months. The frequency of upgrades is increasing as chips become dense.

Now, factor in the IT refresh cycle, typically three to five years. When data centres are being designed today, they must account for the cooling demands of the next five years. Without liquid cooling, they risk becoming obsolete before their lifecycle ends. And the best liquid cooling solution is the one that fits the customer’s needs.

Liquid cooling is still in its early stages, with few fully mature technologies available today. However, its evolution will be driven by real-world deployments. As more companies adopt and share their experiences in industry forums, knowledge about liquid cooling will become more widespread. As the technology matures, the key takeaway remains the same: the best liquid cooling solution is the one that works best for the customer.

Liquid cooling awareness

Vijay Sampathkumar, Vice President & Country Manager for India and Southeast Asia at ZutaCore, remarked awareness of liquid cooling is growing rapidly, at least in India. The conversation is no longer about why liquid cooling but rather how to deploy it. And it’s not just the usual suspects—colocation providers and data centres—reaching out. Captive data centres, educational institutions, and Indian server manufacturers are showing interest in the technology, with momentum building and engagement levels surpassing those from a year and a half ago.

Discussing the latest trends in cooling solutions for data centres, Rajarshi Datta, Director, Sales, India & South Asia, Johnson Controls India, opines. The focus is shifting toward smarter, more adaptive cooling technologies that reduce power usage while ensuring uninterrupted operations. One of the biggest trends is AI-driven cooling systems, which analyse real-time data to adjust cooling output dynamically, improving efficiency and lowering energy waste. Another shift is the move towards liquid and hybrid cooling solutions. These help manage the increasing heat generated by high-density computing.

Vishal Jadhav, Business Development Manager – Data Centres at Belimo Automation India exemplified how everyone—whether a food delivery app, an e-commerce platform, or any internet-connected service—contributes to the growing demand for data centres. A few years ago, discussions centred around air-cooled solutions because rack densities were much lower, and the kind of high-performance servers seen today were not widely available. With increasingly dense and power-hungry servers, traditional cooling methods are reaching their limits, making liquid cooling a critical part of the conversation.

With immense power densities, traditional air cooling struggles to keep up, making liquid cooling not just an option but a necessity for high-performance data centres.

Cooling technology vs HPC

Vijay Sampathkumar states that water entering the rack is not needed. Water, by its very nature, is harmful to electronics. It does not differentiate between servers and humans—it reacts the same way. Corrosion and short circuits are risks that data centres can not afford. That is why a dielectric liquid prevents these risks and optimises server performance.

With direct-to-chip or immersion cooling, we eliminate the need for internal server fans, leading to an immediate reduction in power consumption. The objective of a data centre is computing— computing happens inside the server, nowhere else.

By adopting liquid cooling, we enable denser racks that deliver greater computing power. Direct chip cooling allows us to absorb 100% of the heat with zero latency in heat removal, ensuring peak efficiency for next-generation workloads. Liquid cooling directly on the CPU and GPU eliminates the need for fans, reducing power consumption by 15%. This saves power for rack density and compute performance, allowing for more efficient use of server resources.

Dielectric fluids

Liquid immersion cooling systems rely on a class of liquids: synthesised hydrocarbons. These coolants can either be derived from oil or produced through gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology, where hydrocarbons are synthesised from gases, says Amod Ranade. Different types of hydrocarbon chains are used depending on the cooling application.

For single-phase immersion cooling, the liquid remains in one state while transferring heat. However, in two-phase immersion cooling, the process involves refrigerants. Simply put, a refrigerant is a medium that can transition between two states—liquid and gas—allowing it to capture heat more efficiently using latent heat transfer.

Since different applications require specific thermal properties, various refrigerant variants are used in two-phase systems. The two-phase immersion cooling solutions rely on these refrigerant-based coolants to maximise heat dissipation and efficiency.

Amod Ranade explained high-performance computing, high-frequency trading, cloud deployments, and AI clusters are the primary areas where air cooling is reaching its limits. These architectures are inherently designed for high density, which makes them the first to face significant challenges. The next wave of change will come when server OEMs decide that air cooling is no longer a viable option for their systems.

Every technology comes with trade-offs, and it will be interesting to see how customers deploy different solutions and whether those trade-offs work in their favour.

Any technology will always have trade-offs, making this liquid cooling adoption phase so interesting. Different technologies will be positioned in different data centres, and as customers weigh trade-offs, the market will gradually influence which solutions become more widely accepted and popular.

Vijay Sampathkumar highlights the biggest challenge we face currently. We are all working towards creating awareness, but thanks to the growing heat in the environment, acceptance is crucial for us to take things seriously, as it makes things easier for us.

Cooling vs energy efficiency

Vishal Jadhav categorically stated that Dielectric or water-based coolants can absorb and transfer heat directly from the heat exchanger. Whatever heat is generated inside the data hall or the server is direct, so it’s not that the basic conduction, convection, and radiation are applicable in the airport. Still, in water-cooled coolants, heat is directly transferred to the central distribution unit. That’s one area where the media itself is efficient enough.

The choice of cooling media and certain liquid cooling components significantly drive higher energy efficiency. In his view, these advancements will make a noticeable impact in the coming years.

Cooling strategies and energy efficiency

Vijay Sampathkumar remarks that focus on optimising the existing infrastructure. There is a common misconception that liquid cooling cannot be retrofitted into current setups, but that’s not true. It is possible to integrate liquid cooling into existing infrastructure, allowing data centres to enhance efficiency without heavy investments in new real estate or capital expenditures. Whether it is immersion cooling, direct-to-chip, single-phase, or dual-phase cooling, these technologies can be leveraged in retrofit applications to maximise the value of existing facilities.

Data centres often avoid higher-density configurations, but by proactively pushing the limits and focusing on higher-density options, they can achieve significantly better ROI than their current performance.

Operational cost savings

Amod Ranade deliberated that Liquid cooling technologies offer lower OPEX than air-cooled systems due to their high thermal conductivity and density. This leads to less energy spent on heat removal, resulting in savings in data centre operating expenses. The concept of physics suggests that liquid cooling requires less energy to heat up, resulting in savings in data centre operations.

With liquid immersion cooling, the benefits extend beyond just power efficiency. However, the real competitive advantage comes from how much of the refrigeration cycle can be eliminated. While a chiller-based liquid cooling design is already far more efficient than an equivalent air-cooled setup, a chiller-free design is even better. Power consumption drops drastically without compressors, making energy use far more efficient.

On to the future

The data centre industry in India is characterised by a diverse range of technologies, particularly in regions with varying climatic conditions. This diversity allows for experimentation and optimisation based on regional factors, ensuring optimal performance in hot and humid regions like Mumbai or Chennai.

That said, liquid cooling adoption isn’t primarily driven by efficiency—it’s driven by performance. A data centre owner’s main objective is to maximise IT performance. For example, high-performance computing has widely adopted single-phase liquid immersion cooling because it enables overclocking. Instead of running a CPU at 3 GHz, this technology allows it to operate continuously in turbo mode at 4 GHz, delivering a substantial performance boost.

The global shift towards remote working, the rise of artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) propel innovative technologies. In India, where digital transformation is accelerating, the data centre market is slated to expand rapidly, with more investments pouring into infrastructure and renewable energy solutions.  Cooling management prevents overheating, as data centres consistently generate enormous heat. The right cooling solutions optimise performance and manage heat for the industry’s future growth.

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Mr. Vishal Jadhav, Business Development Manager, Data Centers, Belimo Automation India Pvt. Ltd.

The choice of cooling media and certain liquid cooling components will strategically drive higher energy efficiency.

Mr. Vijay Sampathkumar, Vice President & Country Manager, India & South East Asia, ZutaCore

With direct-to-chip or immersion cooling, we eliminate the need for internal server fans, reducing power consumption.

Mr. Amod Ranade, Vice President and General Manager, Green Revolution Cooling.

As the technology matures, the key takeaway remains the same: the best liquid cooling solution is the one that works best for the customer.

Rajarshi Datta, Director, Sales, India & South Asia, Johnson Controls India

The emerging shift is the move towards liquid and hybrid cooling solutions. These help manage the increasing heat generated by high-density computing.