Search for: All records

As a result of constantly increasing data center utilization, many challenges have appeared for thermal engineers over the last few decades. Advanced cooling systems for servers are of significant interest, particularly, technologies which can also reduce electricity usage. One known technology called Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is considered a viable alternative for this purpose. It can both the heat from a server and then transfer the server heat into a power cycle to generate electricity. This study consists of the design and construction of an experimental prototype of 20kW of waste heat, representing two common rack servers operating at full capacity. The range of server waste heat temperatures is between 60°C to 85°C, which is far below the normal operating range for ORCs. This ultra-low-grade waste heat leads to an expected thermal efficiency between 2%-8%. Tests on the experimental rig showed a maximum thermal efficiency of 3.33%. The system is both absorbing all the waste heat from the data center and at the same time providing an economic benefit back to the data center in form of electricity. Through experimental investigation, this study provides the first evidence for using ORC system as a valid solution for ultra-low-grade waste heat recovery.