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A techno-economic evaluation of low global warming potential heat pump assisted organic Rankine cycle systems for data center waste heat recovery

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  • Marshall, Z.M.
  • Duquette, J.

Abstract

The increased use of cloud-based technology services in recent years has led to a global rise in data centers. Data centers consume vast amounts of electricity for server cooling. Servers are typically cooled using air-source vapour compression chillers which exhaust low-grade waste heat to the outdoors via a cooling tower. This waste heat can be recovered to a large degree by integrating an organic Rankine “power” cycle into the system. Although heat pump assisted organic Rankine cycle cooling systems have recently emerged as an efficient alternative to conventional air-source chiller systems, they may be considered to be as harmful to the environment due to their use of high global warming potential working fluids. The objective of this work is to determine the thermodynamic performance of several key heat pump assisted organic Rankine cycles that utilize low global warming potential working fluids and assess the economic impact of their utilization relative to a conventional air-source vapour compression chiller. Results show that heat pump assisted organic Rankine cycle systems utilizing low global warming potential working fluids are able to achieve efficiencies that are comparable to systems utilizing conventional working fluids. Additionally, these systems are found to be up to 65% less expensive than air-source vapour compression chillers and are less sensitive to variations in economic parameters. These results show promise with regards to their future implementation in both existing and future data centers.

Suggested Citation

  • Marshall, Z.M. & Duquette, J., 2022. "A techno-economic evaluation of low global warming potential heat pump assisted organic Rankine cycle systems for data center waste heat recovery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:242:y:2022:i:c:s0360544221027778
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.122528
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Enhua & Mao, Jingwen & Zhang, Bo & Wang, Yongzhen, 2023. "On the CAMD method based on PC-SAFT for working fluid design of a high-temperature organic Rankine cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PD).
    2. Saedpanah, Ehsan & Lahonian, Mansour & Malek Abad, Mahdi Zare, 2023. "Optimization of multi-source renewable energy air conditioning systems using a combination of transient simulation, response surface method, and 3E lifespan analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    3. Yuan, Xiaolei & Liang, Yumin & Hu, Xinyi & Xu, Yizhe & Chen, Yongbao & Kosonen, Risto, 2023. "Waste heat recoveries in data centers: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    4. Han, Ouzhu & Ding, Tao & Mu, Chenggang & Jia, Wenhao & Ma, Zhoujun, 2023. "Waste heat reutilization and integrated demand response for decentralized optimization of data centers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    5. Tian, Tong & Wang, Xinyue & Liu, Yang & Yang, Xuan & Sun, Bo & Li, Ji, 2023. "Nano-engineering enabled heat pipe battery: A powerful heat transfer infrastructure with capability of power generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).

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