IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v250y2019icp1217-1224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A decision support system for waste heat recovery and energy efficiency improvement in data centres

Author

Listed:
  • Luo, Yang
  • Andresen, John
  • Clarke, Henry
  • Rajendra, Matthew
  • Maroto-Valer, Mercedes

Abstract

Data centre sector is emerging as one of the largest and fastest growing industrial sectors, accounting for 3% of the global electricity supply and contributing to 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions. A framework for waste heat energy recovery and its accompanying decision support system is presented with the ability to evaluate the waste heat (source) and potential demand (sink) compatibility, perform exergy and temporal availability analysis, and undertake cost-benefits and environmental impact analysis of available heat recovery technologies. This four stages framework is implemented through the case study of a medium-sized commercial data centre to provide evidence of its applicability. The results demonstrated that the framework and decision support system can deliver a streamlined and optimised heat recovery strategy for reducing overall energy requirement in the data centre. About 68% of the inevitable waste heat from IT equipment can be recovered by the recommended solution, allowing the recovered waste heat in the form of warm water to be fed back into the facility for applications such as space heating, achieving about 10% improvement in data centre power usage effectiveness. The solutions given by the decision support system are generally accessible for most data centres as the technologies are readily available and often lead to short payback time and substantial energy savings.

Suggested Citation

  • Luo, Yang & Andresen, John & Clarke, Henry & Rajendra, Matthew & Maroto-Valer, Mercedes, 2019. "A decision support system for waste heat recovery and energy efficiency improvement in data centres," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1217-1224.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:1217-1224
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919308827
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.05.029?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Persson, Urban & Werner, Sven, 2012. "District heating in sequential energy supply," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 123-131.
    2. Tchanche, Bertrand F. & Lambrinos, Gr. & Frangoudakis, A. & Papadakis, G., 2011. "Low-grade heat conversion into power using organic Rankine cycles – A review of various applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3963-3979.
    3. Ebrahimi, Khosrow & Jones, Gerard F. & Fleischer, Amy S., 2015. "Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrigeration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 384-397.
    4. Wahlroos, Mikko & Pärssinen, Matti & Manner, Jukka & Syri, Sanna, 2017. "Utilizing data center waste heat in district heating – Impacts on energy efficiency and prospects for low-temperature district heating networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 1228-1238.
    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. Franz Zach & Florian Kretschmer & Gernot Stoeglehner, 2019. "Integrating Energy Demand and Local Renewable Energy Sources in Smart Urban Development Zones: New Options for Climate-Friendly Resilient Urban Planning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-28, September.
    2. Waldemar Kuczynski & Kazimierz Kaminski & Pawel Znaczko & Norbert Chamier-Gliszczynski & Piotr Piatkowski, 2021. "On the Correlation between the Geometrical Features and Thermal Efficiency of Flat-Plate Solar Collectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Piotr Kowalski & Paweł Szałański & Wojciech Cepiński, 2021. "Waste Heat Recovery by Air-to-Water Heat Pump from Exhausted Ventilating Air for Heating of Multi-Family Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-17, November.
    4. 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).
    5. Nima Asgari & Matthew T. McDonald & Joshua M. Pearce, 2023. "Energy Modeling and Techno-Economic Feasibility Analysis of Greenhouses for Tomato Cultivation Utilizing the Waste Heat of Cryptocurrency Miners," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-42, January.
    6. Le Sun & Jiafeng Geng & Kaijun Dong & Qin Sun, 2024. "The Applications and Challenges of Nanofluids as Coolants in Data Centers: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-30, June.
    7. Aridi, Rima & Faraj, Jalal & Ali, Samer & Lemenand, Thierry & khaled, Mahmoud, 2022. "A comprehensive review on hybrid heat recovery systems: Classifications, applications, pros and cons, and new systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    8. Ieva Pakere & Kirils Goncarovs & Armands Grāvelsiņš & Marita Agate Zirne, 2024. "Dynamic Modelling of Data Center Waste Heat Potential Integration in District Heating in Latvia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-13, January.
    9. Jinkyun Cho & Jesang Woo & Beungyong Park & Taesub Lim, 2020. "A Comparative CFD Study of Two Air Distribution Systems with Hot Aisle Containment in High-Density Data Centers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-19, November.
    10. Zhang, Yingbo & Shan, Kui & Li, Xiuming & Li, Hangxin & Wang, Shengwei, 2023. "Research and Technologies for next-generation high-temperature data centers – State-of-the-arts and future perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    11. Chen, Xiaoxuan & Wang, Xinyi & Ding, Tao & Li, Zhen, 2023. "Experimental research and energy saving analysis of an integrated data center cooling and waste heat recovery system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 352(C).
    12. Peter L. Borland & Kevin McDonnell & Mary Harty, 2023. "Assessment of the Potential to Use the Expelled Heat Energy from a Typical Data Centre in Ireland for Alternative Farming Methods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-32, September.

    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. Li, Weiwei & Qian, Tong & Zhang, Yin & Shen, Yueqing & Wu, Chenghu & Tang, Wenhu, 2023. "Distributionally robust chance-constrained planning for regional integrated electricity–heat systems with data centers considering wind power uncertainty," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    2. Vesterlund, Mattias & Borisová, Stanislava & Emilsson, Ellinor, 2024. "Data center excess heat for mealworm farming, an applied analysis for sustainable protein production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    3. Huang, Pei & Copertaro, Benedetta & Zhang, Xingxing & Shen, Jingchun & Löfgren, Isabelle & Rönnelid, Mats & Fahlen, Jan & Andersson, Dan & Svanfeldt, Mikael, 2020. "A review of data centers as prosumers in district energy systems: Renewable energy integration and waste heat reuse for district heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    4. Jiawen Yu & Yanqiu Yan & Yiqiang Jiang & Jie Ge, 2022. "Renewable energy configuration scheme of data center in cold area. A case study [An overview of renewable energy resources and grid integration for commercial building applications]," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 17, pages 411-420.
    5. Cristina Ramos Cáceres & Suzanna Törnroth & Mattias Vesterlund & Andreas Johansson & Marcus Sandberg, 2022. "Data-Center Farming: Exploring the Potential of Industrial Symbiosis in a Subarctic Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.
    6. 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).
    7. He, Wei & Xu, Qing & Liu, Shengchun & Wang, Tieying & Wang, Fang & Wu, Xiaohui & Wang, Yulin & Li, Hailong, 2024. "Analysis on data center power supply system based on multiple renewable power configurations and multi-objective optimization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    8. Giulia Spirito & Alice Dénarié & Fabrizio Fattori & Mario Motta & Samuel Macchi & Urban Persson, 2021. "Potential Diffusion of Renewables-Based DH Assessment through Clustering and Mapping: A Case Study in Milano," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-30, May.
    9. Jodeiri, A.M. & Goldsworthy, M.J. & Buffa, S. & Cozzini, M., 2022. "Role of sustainable heat sources in transition towards fourth generation district heating – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Xie, Jian & Xu, Jinliang & Liang, Cong & She, Qingting & Li, Mingjia, 2019. "A comprehensive understanding of enhanced condensation heat transfer using phase separation concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 661-674.
    12. He, Chao & Liu, Chao & Zhou, Mengtong & Xie, Hui & Xu, Xiaoxiao & Wu, Shuangying & Li, Yourong, 2014. "A new selection principle of working fluids for subcritical organic Rankine cycle coupling with different heat sources," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 283-291.
    13. Larsen, Ulrik & Pierobon, Leonardo & Haglind, Fredrik & Gabrielii, Cecilia, 2013. "Design and optimisation of organic Rankine cycles for waste heat recovery in marine applications using the principles of natural selection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 803-812.
    14. Persson, Urban & Wiechers, Eva & Möller, Bernd & Werner, Sven, 2019. "Heat Roadmap Europe: Heat distribution costs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 604-622.
    15. Bamorovat Abadi, Gholamreza & Kim, Kyung Chun, 2017. "Investigation of organic Rankine cycles with zeotropic mixtures as a working fluid: Advantages and issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1000-1013.
    16. Manal Ayyad Dhif Alshammry & Saqib Muneer, 2023. "The influence of economic development, capital formation, and internet use on environmental degradation in Saudi Arabia," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Hammar, Linus & Ehnberg, Jimmy & Mavume, Alberto & Cuamba, Boaventura C. & Molander, Sverker, 2012. "Renewable ocean energy in the Western Indian Ocean," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 4938-4950.
    18. Xia, Guanghui & Zhuang, Dawei & Ding, Guoliang & Lu, Jingchao, 2020. "A quasi-three-dimensional distributed parameter model of micro-channel separated heat pipe applied for cooling telecommunication cabinets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    19. Li, Weiwei & Qian, Tong & Zhao, Wei & Huang, Wenwei & Zhang, Yin & Xie, Xuehua & Tang, Wenhu, 2023. "Decentralized optimization for integrated electricity–heat systems with data center based energy hub considering communication packet loss," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    20. Francesco Neirotti & Michel Noussan & Stefano Riverso & Giorgio Manganini, 2019. "Analysis of Different Strategies for Lowering the Operation Temperature in Existing District Heating Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.

    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:appene:v:250:y:2019:i:c:p:1217-1224. 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.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    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.