Techno-Economic Analysis of Waste Heat Utilization in Data Centers: Application of Absorption Chiller Systems

Abstract

Modern data centers are playing a pivotal role in the global economic situation. Unlike high-quality source of waste heat, it is challenging to recover the decentralized and low-quality waste heat sourced from data centers due to numerous technological and economic hurdles. As such, it is of the utmost importance to explore possible pathways to maximize the energy efficiency of the data centers and to utilize their heat recovery. Absorption chiller systems are a promising technology for the recovery of waste heat at ultra-low temperatures. In fact, the low temperature heat discharged from data centers cannot be retrieved with conventional heat recovery systems. Therefore, the present study investigated feasibility of waste heat recovery from data centers using an absorption chiller system, with the ultimate goal of electrical energy production. To fulfill this objective, a techno-economic assessment of heat recovery using absorption chiller (AC) technique for the data centers with power consumption range of 4.5 to 13.5 MW is performed. The proposed AC system enables saving electricity for the value of 4,340,000 kWh/year and 13,025,000 kWh/year leading to an annual reduction of 3068 and 9208 tons CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, respectively. The results of this study suggest an optimum change in the design of the data center while reducing the payback period for the investors.

Junction Temperature of Cmos Electronics Cooled by a Regenerative Cryocooler

“…However, the heat recovery technology has a minimum input temperature, which is higher than a typical temperature of the cryocooler's heat sink. For example, absorption chillers for space cooling need a minimum temperature of around 350 K to operate (Amiri et al, 2021), and the cryocooler in this work had the heat sink temperature of 293 K. This means that the operational and design parameters of the cryocooler would need to be changed to accommodate a hotter heat sink requirements. On the other hand, the change of boundary conditions would also affect the cryospace temperatures.…”

Feasibility Investigation of Geothermal Energy Heating System in Mining Area: Application of Mine Cooling and Aquifer Thermal Energy Exploitation Technique

“…C ele = E ele,HP + E ele,pump P ele (24) where γ is equipment maintenance cost coefficient; N per is number of operating workers; S per is salary of workers; E ele,HP is heat pump power consumption; E ele,pump recirculation pump power consumption; P ele is electricity prices. The electricity cost mainly includes the operating electricity cost of the water-source heat pump and each recirculation pump, which is related to the heat demand of the system and distance.…”

“…They developed an economic analysis that looked at vulnerability of fossil fuel prices, heat exchanger effectiveness, and different set temperatures. Leyla Amiri et al [24] performed a techno-economic assessment of waste heat recovery from data centers using an absorption chiller system, and investigated the feasibility of the system. Rajab, M. M. et al [25] created a simulation-optimization method based on uncertainty to evaluate the technological and economic viability of CO 2 -based geothermal generation in an enclosed reservoir system.…”

Experimental Analysis of Bi-Directional Heat Trading Operation Integrated with Heat Prosumers in Thermal Networks

“…Recently, various research studies in terms of waste heat reuse, such as a data center as prosumers in district energy systems integrated with renewable energy and waste heat reuse, have been also investigated [23][24][25][26][27]. Wang et al [24] investigated the thermal prosumer data center using a carbon dioxide ground-source heat-pump system.…”

“…Nielsen et al [26] investigated the accessible potential of unconventional excess heat sources, such as data centers, wastewater treatment, metros, and service sector buildings. Amiri et al [27] investigated the feasibility in terms of waste heat recovery from data centers for applying an absorption chiller.…”