INTELLIGENT GREEN TECHNOLOGY
Selecting right cooling system can reduce global warming
With legislation recognising global warming effects of refrigerants , selecting the right mix is important for datacentres , presents Maurizio Frizziero at Schneider Electric .
The datacentre industry is poised for significant change in the refrigerants which are used in cooling systems , changes that you would do well to pay attention to in order to understand the implications for your own datacentre .
We have known for years , even decades , that refrigerants are harmful to the earth ’ s ozone layer and impact on the global warming . So , we have been phasing out the harmful ones over time while constantly looking for effective , safe replacements , typically with no shortage of prodding from various governmental bodies .
First waves , around 2002 in Europe and more recently in North America and Asia , were to ban any blend which contributes to the ozone depletion , while recent and next standards are going to reduce the impact on the general increase of temperature generated by refrigerant leakages in the atmosphere . More recently , an accord to cut the worldwide use of a powerful planet-warming chemical used in airconditioners was signed .
Datacentres are no exception to this regulatory trend and , while the issues are quite clear , the solutions are far less so .
The two main refrigerants used in datacentre cooling systems today are R410A , used in small to medium-sized datacentres that require about 300- 400kW of cooling capacity per unit , and R134a , used in larger systems . The problem with both of them is they have a relatively high rating in terms of global warming potential , a measurement of environmental impact . While there are potential replacements for both of them that have lower global warming potential , they are not without issues of their own .
The most environmentally sound option would be to use natural refrigerants , meaning substances that occur naturally as opposed to manmade chemical compounds . The most common options are ammonia , propane and CO2 , each of which have low global warming potential ratings , in fact , CO2 is the baseline by which global warming potential is measured .
44 Issue 04 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS