Supporting Data Centres with Reliable Water Treatment and Extensive Supply of Water Treatment Equipment

Data centres are acknowledged to be energy intensive facilities; energy is consumed to power IT equipment demands, as well as fulfil overhead functions, such as heating and cooling facilities.

Energy efficiency, therefore, is at the forefront of the IT sector, including that of data centres. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) calculates the energy efficiency of data centres by dividing the total energy used for IT equipment by the total energy used for the entire facility, including overhead energy.

Water cooling systems are frequently used to control the temperatures within the server environment and can use considerable amounts of water to function. In data centres, where water cooling systems are required to operate 24 hours a day, installation of effective water treatment equipment can reduce both the amount of water required and the amount of energy consumed cooling these facilities.

To support the Amsterdam data centre, SOCOTEC is supplying an extensive range of water treatment equipment with the aim of the facility being more energy efficient.

Recycling water will reduce the amount of source water used for water cooling systems. Not only does this minimise operating costs, recycling water is a fundamental step to being environmentally responsible. The inclusion of SOCOTEC’s OASIS bleed recovery systems will enable the Amsterdam data centre to ensure their systems are environmentally efficient by purifying the effluent water at a recyclable rate of between 60-75%.

Of equal environmental concern is the quality of waste water being discharged to drain. SOCOTEC will introduce ozone water treatment systems which will replace traditional chemical biocides as a treatment solution, meaning all water used can be recycled more efficiently and waste waters are not classed as effluent and can be disposed directly to surface drainage.

The need to reduce the hardness of water is one of the most common forms of water treatment. As the water used for the cooling process often contains a significant level of natural mineral salts, a cost effective solution is to remove the dissolved hard mineral salts from the water to replace or exchange them with soft salts. SOCOTEC’s duplex water softener does this, giving a continuous 24 hour supply of softened water. For applications where large variations of water are in high and continuous demand, such as the data centre, the duplex water softener can ensure an uninterrupted supply of soft water to keep the cooling towers running efficiently – fundamental given that overheating can cause server malfunction.

SOCOTEC’s bulk salt saturators removes the manual handling issues associated with producing brine for the softening process providing a cost-effective continuous and controllable supply of saturated brine solution. A water hardness monitor supports the process by self-monitoring performance and measuring functionality.

Nick Harper, operations director, Water Services for SOCOTEC, commented: