Method of subsidizing cost of providing information
The inventive subject matter provides for repurposing otherwise wasted thermal energy to drive a commercial process. Thermal energy from a cooling system containing a computer system and at least one manifold that is operably coupled with a compressor, heat exchanger, pressure regulator, and controller, to provide thermal energy at an elevated temperature to drive the commercial process. The cooling system can advantageously be used to cool computer systems, including Bitcoin miners, crypto miners, high-performance computers, AI computers, or other thermal energy producing devices. The system operates by extracting vapor of the working fluid from the manifold, increasing the pressure and temperature of the extracted vapor by compression, and then passing this vapor to a heat exchanger, thereby providing thermal energy to drive the commercial process.
1. A method of subsidizing a cost of providing information, comprising:
providing a cooling system comprising at least one manifold, wherein the at least one manifold is in thermal communication with a computer system, wherein an elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of a working fluid flows through the at least one manifold, and wherein the computer system providing the information;
directing an elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid from the at least one manifold to a compressor;
compressing the elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid to produce an elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid, wherein the temperature of the working fluid is increased during the compressing process;
utilizing the elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid in a heat exchanger to operate a commercial process, during which the elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid is condensed to an elevated-high-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid;
reducing a pressure of the elevated-high-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid to produce an elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid;
returning the elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid to the at least one manifold; and
monitoring and controlling among at least one of the computer system, the compressor, a pressure regulator, and the commercial process.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the working fluid comprises a mixture of at least two different working fluids, wherein each component of the mixture has at least two different saturation temperatures within the at least one manifold.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the working fluid has a saturation temperature in the manifold-cooling system of 50° C. to 80° C., inclusive.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling system further comprises at least two manifolds that are in thermal communication with the computer system.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises a Bitcoin hash.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information comprises an artificial intelligence (AI) computation.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising monitoring and controlling at least three of the computer system, the at least one manifold, the compressor, the pressure regulator, and the commercial process.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using feedback to control a rate of electrical energy usage by the computer system as a function of electrical energy cost and/or computational incentives.
9. A system that uses thermal energy resulting from an information processing system to drive a district heating system, comprising:
a computer system configured to generate information;
an at least one manifold in thermal communication with the computer system;
an elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid;
an elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid;
a compressor configured to extract the elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid from the at least one manifold to the compressor;
wherein the compressor is further configured to compress the elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid to produce an elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid, thereby increasing the temperature of the working fluid;
a heat exchanger configured to transfer thermal energy from the elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid to drive a commercial process, during which the elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid is condensed to an elevated-high-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid;
a pressure regulator configured to reduce the pressure of the elevated-high-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid to the elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of working fluid, which is returned to the at least one manifold; and
a controller configured to monitor and control among at least one of the computer system, the at least one manifold, the compressor, the pressure regulator, and the commercial process.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the computer system comprises a processor configured to mine Bitcoins.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the system is sized and dimensioned to contain at least 6 Bitcoin miners.
12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the system is configured for substantially isobaric phase change of the working fluid from the elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid to the elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid.
13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the compressor is configured for substantially isentropic compression of the working fluid, from the elevated-low-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid to the elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid.
14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the heat exchanger is configured for substantially isobaric condensation of the working fluid, wherein thermal energy is transferred from the working fluid to the commercial process, resulting in at least a partial phase change of the working fluid from elevated-high-pressure vapor-phase of the working fluid to elevated-high-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid.
15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the pressure regulator is configured for substantially isenthalpic pressure reduction of the working fluid from the elevated-high-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid to the elevated-low-pressure liquid-phase of the working fluid.
16. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a controller configured to control at least two of the computer system, the compressor, the pressure regulator, and the commercial process.
17. The system of claim 9 , further comprising a controller configured to feedback to control a rate of electrical energy usage by the computer system as a function of electrical energy cost and/or computational incentives.
18. The system of claim 9 , wherein the pressure inside the at least one manifold is at least 1.1 atm.
19. The system of claim 9 , wherein the pressure inside the at least one manifold is between 2 and 10 atm.
20. The system of claim 9 , wherein the pressure inside the at least one manifold is at least 5 atm.