Cargill Inc. has a new plant-based product that cools electronic systems, which the company says is the first of its kind.
The Wayzata-based food and commodities conglomerate announced this week the launch of its immersion cooling fluid, called NatureCool 2000, which removes heat from electronics. Cargill says it is the only such product that is plant-based and biodegradable that also provides improved sustainability, better fire safety and advanced heat transfer and dissipation, leading to lowered energy costs, over conventional options, according to its website.
The new fluid is made from more than 90%-vegetable oil and additives to boost performance. The company says the fluid is CO2 neutral, with a zero Global Warming Potential impact score.
Immersion cooling works by submerging electronics in non-conductive liquid, transferring the heat created by their components to the fluid and cooled down. The alternative, conventional method is cooling components with HVAC systems. Compared to this method, the new NatureCool fluid is intended to provide significantly more cooling capacity and an up to 60% reduction in energy use, the company says.
“Immersion cooling is the new frontier of technologies that allows for more efficient, higher performing systems that also help make the IT industry more sustainable,” Kurtis Miller, managing director of Cargill’s bioindustrial business, said in the announcement. “In just the last 10 years, data center power usage has increased from several hundred kilowatts to several hundred megawatts, an over 1,000 times increase."
Miller added, "As chip density continues to rise and the amount of data generated seems endless, we need to find more efficient and sustainable ways to operate these complex systems.”
The fluid can be of use for data centers, cryptocurrency mining, electric vehicle charging stations and other applications and types of electronics, the announcement said.
The team at Cargill has been working on the new fluid for over four years, Kristin Anderson, the business development manager of cooling solutions at Cargill, told the Business Journal. The work included extensive testing of specifications and component compatibility. NatureCool “is important in the market” because it degrades entirely in 28 days or less, she said.
Synthetic fluids and mineral oil fluids are the product’s competitors, she said. But NatureCool has a 10% higher heat capacity than synthetic fluids, the company says.
Immersion cooling can also help heat buildings, the company says. One business — Manitoba-based Mindful Energy Solutions, Inc. — has already taken on this method of heating its facilities, using the fluid in its modular data mining tanks. There, heat is transferred to the fluid and stored, then upcycled to be a heat source for those facilities nine months out of the year, the announcement explained.
Other products in Cargill's bioindustrial, plant-based portfolio include asphalt rejuvenation, adhesives and binders, wax and more, the company says.
