Carbon dioxide provides cooling for Imperial College
The carbon-dioxide-based approach developed by Trox for removing heat from IT cabinets in computer rooms has been applied to 15 cabinets in the mechanical-engineering building at Imperial College.
Cooling for mission-critical blade servers at London’s Imperial College is provided by Trox’s carbon-dioxide cooling system. 15 CO2OLrac units each provide 20 kW of cooling for the server cabinets in the E-Science computer suite. Trox AITCS was responsible for supplying and installing a combined air-cooled R134a chiller and carbon-dioxide plant, fully welded pipework to distribute the carbon dioxide and gas detection/isolation. The work was carried out as part of a refurbishment project. The CO2OLrac units were supplied with a mounting frame, providing the flexibility to rapidly install different types and sizes of equipment cabinets. A condensing unit backed by an uninterruptible power supply was provided to protect the carbon-dioxide charge. Trox AITCS installed the mounting frame, cabinet doors and CO2OLrac units. Its partner Star installed the associated chiller plant and pipework. CO2OLrac units can provide up to 30 kW of cooling per cabinet. They extract heat from the cabinet itself and reject it to pipework carrying liquid carbon dioxide. This approach enables much more equipment to be installed in an IT equipment room. The chiller system is also more efficient than one based on chilled water since the carbon dioxide is delivered at 14°C compared with 6°C for chilled water.
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