Our team - Leonie Marina Banzer, Anne Weisemann, Conrad Wächter, Dr Andreas Hantsch and Dr Jens Struckmeier - was awarded two prizes at the OCP Future Technologies Symposium 2021, including a grand prize of 10,000 $:

We are winners of the Sustainability Tech Track and received the 'Best Paper Award' of the OCP Future Technologies Symposium 2021 for "Pushing the boundary conditions of data centres facilities innovative circular approaches"!

About the paper:

Data centres consume a lot of energy that is normally discharged into the environment. By shifting the boundary conditions, we can promote circular economy approaches and use the waste heat. Chip and server manufacturers are challenged to optimise their hardware for direct hot-liquid cooling that enables high temperatures. Data is the new fuel. We call it 'energy to data, data to heat'. Placing data centres in locations where both information technology and heat needs coincide with server virtualisation and load optimisation enables circular economy approaches. We investigate the impact of direct hot-liquid cooling on the energy reuse factor. Depending on the location, values from 85 % to just below 100 % are achievable. Optimised servers and components contribute significantly to achieving this goal.