You cannot have evaporative cooling without evaporating some water into the atmosphere.
A closed circuit cooling tower still has water spraying onto the closed loop process water heat exchanger coil and mixing with atmospheric air to evaporate and cool the process water indirectly instead of evaporating and recirculating the process water that doesn’t evaporate directly like in an open-loop cooling tower.
I suppose you could condense the evaporated water somehow by using a chilled umbrella or some other ridiculous contraption above the cooling tower, but why would you do that?
FWIW I sell and run commercial electrical work, primarily to mechanical contractors who are installing boilers, chillers, cooling towers, and pumps. I spend my professional life immersed in this type of equipment.
> I suppose you could condense the evaporated water somehow by using a chilled umbrella or some other ridiculous contraption above the cooling tower, but why would you do that?
Specifically to reduce the ongoing demand for water.
DCs need to get to net-zero on their energy requirements and their water consumption.
They are already losing their political license to operate because they're not.
That's independent of the noise and other impositions on the local communities.
For a DC to be politically acceptable it must be:
* Net zero emissions on energy consumption, preferably powered by renewables in addition to the existing local supply.
* Net zero on water consumption, especially fresh/drinking water from local supplies.
To quote the great Jeffrey Lebowski, “That’s just like, your opinion, man.”
You may think these are necessary things to do, but data centers are being built as we speak that are not net zero on energy or water consumption. That’s reality.
It would be ideal if data centers had net zero energy and water consumption, don’t get me wrong. That won’t happen without legislation, and even then legislative efforts will be a patchwork that won’t cover everyone due to some politicians selling out their constituents.
But you can do that in a closed system and recapture the water
You cannot have evaporative cooling without evaporating some water into the atmosphere.
A closed circuit cooling tower still has water spraying onto the closed loop process water heat exchanger coil and mixing with atmospheric air to evaporate and cool the process water indirectly instead of evaporating and recirculating the process water that doesn’t evaporate directly like in an open-loop cooling tower.
I suppose you could condense the evaporated water somehow by using a chilled umbrella or some other ridiculous contraption above the cooling tower, but why would you do that?
FWIW I sell and run commercial electrical work, primarily to mechanical contractors who are installing boilers, chillers, cooling towers, and pumps. I spend my professional life immersed in this type of equipment.
> I suppose you could condense the evaporated water somehow by using a chilled umbrella or some other ridiculous contraption above the cooling tower, but why would you do that?
Specifically to reduce the ongoing demand for water.
DCs need to get to net-zero on their energy requirements and their water consumption.
They are already losing their political license to operate because they're not.
That's independent of the noise and other impositions on the local communities.
For a DC to be politically acceptable it must be:
* Net zero emissions on energy consumption, preferably powered by renewables in addition to the existing local supply.
* Net zero on water consumption, especially fresh/drinking water from local supplies.
* Low to no noise or other pollution.
To quote the great Jeffrey Lebowski, “That’s just like, your opinion, man.”
You may think these are necessary things to do, but data centers are being built as we speak that are not net zero on energy or water consumption. That’s reality.
It would be ideal if data centers had net zero energy and water consumption, don’t get me wrong. That won’t happen without legislation, and even then legislative efforts will be a patchwork that won’t cover everyone due to some politicians selling out their constituents.
That is called a heat pipe and doesn't get you anything. It's exactly the same as a closed plain water loop with no phase-change involved.