Microturbines Power, Cool Servers Simultaneously 58
jfruhlinger writes "The infrastructure of a large data center poses two main problems: You need to find a way to reliably power all those servers, and you need to figure out a way to deal with the heat those servers put off. Syracuse University and the University of Toledo are experimenting with one gadget to solve both problems. Small power units that run on natural gas, called microturbines, provide reliable DC power separate from the utility grid, and their heat output can paradoxically be harnessed to cool the servers and transmit the heat to other buildings on campus."
Purdue University has this (Score:5, Informative)
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Of course, the percentage of energy recovered is laughably low, but at least they are getting something back.
Re:Purdue University has this (Score:5, Informative)
Citation?
Many EDUs and other large business campuses use tri-gen plants and from everything I've seen they arguably are significantly more efficient per unit of input engery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeneration [wikipedia.org]
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Actually, the main purpose of the power plant is to provide heating and cooling to campus. Since it utilizes what would otherwise be waste heat, it has very high efficiency.
Can they sell unused power back to the grid? (Score:3, Informative)
Can they sell unused power back to the grid?
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It'd be cheaper not to use it in the first place.
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Why would they? A "micro" turbine is surely less efficient than whatever large-scale system the power company is using.
In other words, the gas they use to make the electricity probably costs more than the power company will pay them for it. So it would be a net loss to sell back to the power company.
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there is nothing preventing the larger turbine from being hooked into a similar combined cycle system as well.
There is the economic fact that people who can make use of low-level waste heat don't live next to power plants.
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The last 30 seconds of the video specifically mention that.
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The TFV (video) says yes.
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Presumably yes. But seeing as it's a gas-powered turbine, it'd probably make more sense to just not generate more power than is needed.
Awwww shit..... (Score:4, Funny)
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My gaming PC already sounds like a Hoover and now you're telling me the next evolution in cooling is to put a turbine in it? :o(
Yeah, and it runs on natural gas, so there's that extra noise too. Stock up on frozen burritos.
Re:Awwww shit..... (Score:5, Interesting)
No this is for server rooms. Something tells me most people won't want to run a line from their natgas system into their server.
Speaking of server noise, though, I've often wondered if a laminar-friction impeller might at least not have that high-pitched whine. Basically this is a squat horn-shaped surface spun really fast. The air enters through the hole and gets accelerated by laminar friction out in all directions -- so it would have to be redirected with a hood to produce a lateral flow compatible with server fans, but then might be able to "entrain" like that ridiculous looking Coand-effect donut fan that Dyson sells. The main problem is the bearing has to fit around the big hole, so that's much more bearing adding to the cost of the unit. Though it might be possible with careful motor design to make the whole plate levitate rather than ride a bearing. The huge advantage, other than the lack of turbulence, would be there's no leading surface on which dust and debris can perch.
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The idea is that the device is completely symmetrical with no blades or veins. There may be some imperfections, but they would produce extremely low amplitude signal. Minus the actual noise of the airflow itself, should be as quiet as a hard drive.
fanless spinning heatsink (Score:3)
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/89710-the-fanless-spinning-heatsink-the-heatsink-is-the-fan [extremetech.com]
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Not exactly what I had in mind, but very, very interesting. Thanks for the link!
Turbo button? (Score:5, Funny)
Will it finally have meaning?
Will future PCs suffer from turbine lag?
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Oh man, I would have gotten that headshot but my turbine was spooling down.
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Well it has the little red button to make it non-functional, but I can't locate the clutch.
http://www.msi.com/product/vga/NX8600GT-Twin-Turbo.html [msi.com]
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Ball-bearing variable geometry turbos means little lag no matter what you do with the clutch.
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From here? [mini-box.com]
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most telcos use -48V DC (Score:2)
So carrier-grade gear will be DC-DC.
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Toledo only needs 260 kW electric and 100 tons of cooling, much too small for a traditional gas turbine.
Yikes. We've got that much power run to our little compute cluster servicing half a dozen graduate students. We've got a pair of 400A 2-phase 220V panels for our computers, and about as much running to a pair of AC units. Under full load with everything running, we might hit half that. The combustion lab at the other end of the building runs a pair of 800A 3-phase 480V service lines to power resistance heaters for their high pressure air tanks. The lab back on main campus uses around 2MW of steam from
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chp (Score:5, Informative)
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I read the article and I'm still not sure I understand:
...and that heat is converted into chilled water using a liquid cooling system of absorption chillers that IBM and SU created.
So, is that saying the turbine heat powers something like a heat pump that then cools the computers?
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See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator [wikipedia.org]
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hmmm that makes me wonder. Could the waist heat from a data center move up a chimney fast enough to move a turbine without the additional heat?
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Cooling with gas (Score:3)
Someone's never heard of LP gas-powered refrigerators [wikipedia.org].
can do the same with kerosene (Score:2)
I had one overseas where we had no power.
paradoxically? (Score:1)
There's no "paradox" in using waste heat to generate chilled water. It's done all the time.
Thats what I do. (Score:2)
I do this at home. My computers are really cool. Oh wait. Natural GAS not natural grass. Nevermind.
obligatory Morbo (Score:1)
Perpetual motion (Score:2)
Morbo (Score:1)
One of these... (Score:2)