IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v328y2025ics0360544225021784.html

Thermodynamic analysis and evaluation of a sub-ambient synergistic Carnot battery for external waste heat recovery and data-center cooling: A preliminary investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Shucheng
  • Huang, Kunteng
  • Wu, Haocheng
  • Zhao, Li
  • Gao, RuiZhao
  • Xu, Weicong

Abstract

The rapid development of data centers has led to significant increases in cooling energy consumption and operational costs. While waste heat recovery from data center has proven effective in improving system efficiency, existing solutions primarily operate in a 24/7 mode, limiting the ability to capture economic benefits from peak-valley electricity price differences. To maximize peak-valley electricity price benefits in data center cooling operations, this study proposes a novel Carnot battery system that synergistically integrates data center cooling, waste heat recovery, and thermal energy storage. The coupling approach allows operation mode switching between peak and valley periods while maintaining continuous cooling supply. Thermodynamic and exergy analysis models are developed to investigate the effects of different working fluid combinations and operating parameters on system performance. Results show that the R717-R1233zd(E) working fluid pair achieves optimal performance with a maximum round-trip efficiency (ηrt) of 58.78 % while meeting continuous cooling demands. The optimal operating conditions were identified at hot and cold reservoir temperatures of 293.15 K and 283.15 K respectively, with system performance significantly degrading as conditions deviate from these points up to 48.28 % reduction in heat pump COP and 66.67 % reduction in ORC efficiency. Furthermore, when implemented in Hangzhou, the system demonstrates substantial economic benefits, reducing daily operational costs by up to 14,000 CNY compared to conventional cooling methods. This study provides a reference case for innovative cooling system design in data center applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Shucheng & Huang, Kunteng & Wu, Haocheng & Zhao, Li & Gao, RuiZhao & Xu, Weicong, 2025. "Thermodynamic analysis and evaluation of a sub-ambient synergistic Carnot battery for external waste heat recovery and data-center cooling: A preliminary investigation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:328:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225021784
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.136536
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225021784
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.136536?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isazadeh, Amin & Ziviani, Davide & Claridge, David E., 2023. "Global trends, performance metrics, and energy reduction measures in datacom facilities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. 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).
    3. Dumont, O. & Lemort, V., 2020. "Mapping of performance of pumped thermal energy storage (Carnot battery) using waste heat recovery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    4. Ebrahimi, Khosrow & Jones, Gerard F. & Fleischer, Amy S., 2014. "A review of data center cooling technology, operating conditions and the corresponding low-grade waste heat recovery opportunities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 622-638.
    5. Chen, Jianyong & Li, Yunhai & Chen, Weixiong & Luo, Xianglong & Chen, Ying & Yang, Zhi & Eames, Ian W., 2018. "Investigation of the ejector nozzle in refrigeration system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 571-587.
    6. Zhang, Ce & Hou, Beiran & Li, Minxia & Dang, Chaobin & Chen, Xun & Li, Xiuming & Han, Zongwei, 2025. "Feasibility analysis of multi-mode data center liquid cooling system integrated with Carnot battery energy storage module," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    7. Li, Jian & Peng, Xiayao & Yang, Zhen & Hu, Shuozhuo & Duan, Yuanyuan, 2022. "Design, improvements and applications of dual-pressure evaporation organic Rankine cycles: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    8. Li, Jian & Liu, Qiang & Ge, Zhong & Duan, Yuanyuan & Yang, Zhen & Di, Jiawei, 2017. "Optimized liquid-separated thermodynamic states for working fluids of organic Rankine cycles with liquid-separated condensation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 652-660.
    9. Steinmann, W.D., 2014. "The CHEST (Compressed Heat Energy STorage) concept for facility scale thermo mechanical energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 543-552.
    10. Hao, Yueting & Zhou, Haojie & Tian, Tong & Zhang, Wei & Zhou, Xin & Shen, Qingfei & Wu, Tong & Li, Ji, 2025. "Data centers waste heat recovery technologies: Review and evaluation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 384(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Lingfang & Shahidehpour, Mohammad & Chen, Xianqing & Wang, Chongyu & Fang, Xiaolun & Yang, Qiang, 2026. "High-speed REPTA algorithm for performance cost optimization in data centers considering workload delay tolerances," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 404(C).
    2. Li, Binghui & Qian, Wen & Du, Xiaoze, 2025. "Study on the retrofit of coupled Carnot battery in retired coal-fired power units for grid energy storage transformation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PC).
    3. Tian, Bo & Wang, Ningbo & Huang, Congqi & Liu, Lu & Wei, Zuyuan & Guo, Yanhua & Shao, Shuangquan, 2025. "Absorption refrigeration heating pump system for year-round waste heat recovery in liquid-cooled data centers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cui, Zhaopeng & Du, Shuai & Wang, Ruzhu, 2025. "Switchable multistage absorption chiller for ultra-low-grade waste heat driven cooling in data centers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 398(C).
    2. Xiaoyu Zhou & Xinxing Lin & Wen Su & Ruochen Ding & Yaran Liang, 2025. "Thermo-Economic Potential of Carnot Batteries for the Waste Heat Recovery of Liquid-Cooled Data Centers with Different Combinations of Heat Pumps and Organic Rankine Cycles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-28, March.
    3. Zhu, Chenjie & Sun, Yang & Zheng, Guangdong & Li, Dukang & Xu, Cheng & Wu, Ruipeng & Jiang, Huawei & Yang, Qirong, 2025. "Discharging via the low-pressure section of the thermal power plant: a new integrated Carnot battery concept and the performance evaluation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    4. Zhang, Yingbo & Tang, Hong & Li, Hangxin & Wang, Shengwei, 2025. "Integration and interaction of next-generation AI-focused data centers with smart grids and district energy systems: The state-of-the-art, opportunities and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    5. Zhao, Yongliang & Song, Jian & Liu, Ming & Zhao, Yao & Olympios, Andreas V. & Sapin, Paul & Yan, Junjie & Markides, Christos N., 2022. "Thermo-economic assessments of pumped-thermal electricity storage systems employing sensible heat storage materials," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 431-456.
    6. Lv, You & Tian, Helu & Liao, Conglin & Fang, Fang & Liu, Jizhen, 2026. "Multi-time scale optimal scheduling of green energy data centers considering Carnot batteries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    7. Scharrer, Daniel & Bazan, Peter & Pruckner, Marco & German, Reinhard, 2022. "Simulation and analysis of a Carnot Battery consisting of a reversible heat pump/organic Rankine cycle for a domestic application in a community with varying number of houses," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PA).
    8. Yu, Zhikang & Zhang, Xiaosong & Yu, Jianyu & Yang, Yi & Ma, Yuxin & Wang, Libo & Zhang, Chenyu & Yuan, Yubo & Jiang, Zhu & Huang, Shifang, 2025. "Integrating a novel pumped thermal electricity storage system with industrial applications: Simultaneous achievements in flue gas heat recovery, carbon capture, and energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    9. Sui, Yunren & Lin, Haosheng & Ding, Zhixiong & Li, Fuxiang & Sui, Zengguang & Wu, Wei, 2024. "Compact, efficient, and affordable absorption Carnot battery for long-term renewable energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    10. 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).
    11. Pei Lu & Zheng Liang & Xianglong Luo & Yangkai Xia & Jin Wang & Kaihuang Chen & Yingzong Liang & Jianyong Chen & Zhi Yang & Jiacheng He & Ying Chen, 2023. "Design and Optimization of Organic Rankine Cycle Based on Heat Transfer Enhancement and Novel Heat Exchanger: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-34, January.
    12. Zhang, Yunfei & Li, Jian & Yu, Mingzhe & Chen, Xu & Chen, Xingying & Shen, Jun, 2025. "Dominant factor identification and fast optimization of carnot battery by integrating SHAP and physics-guided neural network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 401(PA).
    13. Hao, Yueting & Zhou, Haojie & Tian, Tong & Zhang, Wei & Zhou, Xin & Shen, Qingfei & Wu, Tong & Li, Ji, 2025. "Data centers waste heat recovery technologies: Review and evaluation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 384(C).
    14. 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).
    15. Zhu, Haiping & Wang, Qidong & Zhang, Yuxuan & Gao, Peng & Wu, Weidong & Wang, Liwei, 2026. "A compact R32/DMF absorption refrigeration prototype driven by low-temperature waste heat for the decarbonization of data centers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    16. Wu, Ding & Xue, Yinman & Chen, Yanqi & Huang, Xiaohui & Huang, Sheng & Zhang, Ji, 2026. "Experimental investigation on charging performance of a thermally integrated pumped thermal energy storage system incorporating a two-stage heat pump," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    17. Zhou, Feng & Tian, Xuwen & Song, Yu & Ma, Guoyuan, 2025. "Dynamic performance of an integrated heat pump system coupled free cooling and waste heat recovery in data centers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    18. Chen, Yanqi & Bao, Aorigele & Wu, Ding & Huang, Xiaohui & Huang, Sheng & Zhang, Ji, 2025. "Experimental study of discharge performance of pumped thermal energy storage system based on organic Rankine cycle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    19. Sun, Yang & Zhang, Xiang & Xu, Cheng & Li, Chao & Shao, Mingxuan & Wang, Dechang & Yang, Qirong & Sun, Hongchen, 2024. "Storing electricity in the low-rank coal: The heat-upgrading carnot battery concept and a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    20. Lan, Yun Cheng & Li, Cheng & Wang, Sui Lin, 2019. "Parabolic antenna snow melting and removal using waste heat from the transmitter room," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 738-744.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:328:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225021784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.