NET-ZERO WATER (NZW) REUSE DESICCANT ASSISTED EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEM FOR DATA CENTERS

摘要

The cooling effect of evaporative cooling systems is well documented in literature. Evaporative cooling however introduces humidity into the cooled space, which is unsuitable for data centers. Desiccants (liquid, solid or composites) adsorb moisture from the cooled air to control humidity and is regenerated using waste heat from the data center. This workis an experimentalandtheoreticalinvestigationof the use of desiccantassisted evaporative cooling for data center cooling according to ASHRAE thermal guideline TC 9.9. The thickness of the cooling pads is varied with specific surface area, velocity of airthrough the pad measured, theproductof the air velocity and surface area yields the volumetricflowrate of the air, the water flow rate variedaswell. The configuration is such that the rotary desiccant wheel (impregnated with silica gel) comes after the evaporative cooler. A novel water recovery system using the Peltier effect is proposed to recover moisture from the return air stream thereby optimizing the water consumption of evaporative cooling technology and providing suitable air quality for data center cooling.