Intelligent trickling filter water recycling technology supporting energy efficient evaporative cooling for data center heat dissipation
View Patent ↗The present invention discloses systems and methods for optimized liquid cooling of data centers, featuring trickling filter towers for and biological oxygen demand (BOD) reduction in support of supplying non-potable water for evaporative cooling. A combination of e-pumps, flow sensors, and advanced controllers ensures continuous adaptation to fluctuating compute loads, weather conditions, and time-of-use (TOU) energy pricing. The approach mitigates reliance on remote data center load shifting, reduces operational costs, and preserves local water and energy resources. The invention also tolerates power fluctuations and minimal flow conditions, safeguarding critical cooling functions and biofilm viability with minimal energy consumption. As a result, data centers benefit from a resilient, efficient cooling infrastructure that integrates wastewater treatment and evaporative cooling, sustaining performance even under significant heat loads or resource constraints.
1 . A liquid cooling system for high-density data center servers, comprising:
one or more trickling filter (TF) towers configured to facilitate biofilm-mediated biochemical processes, the one or more TF towers comprising a media supporting aerobic nitrification and anaerobic denitrification of non-potable wastewater;
an external cooling loop comprising one or more evaporative coolers thermally coupled to one or more heat exchangers, wherein non-potable wastewater treated by the one or more TF towers is supplied to the external cooling loop to dissipate heat transferred from the one or more heat exchangers; and
one or more controllers configured to modulate a flow rate of the non-potable wastewater through the external loop to optimize cooling and biochemical treatment efficiency.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more TF towers comprise a plurality of fixed self-cleaning overhead nozzles.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein modulating the flow rate involves dynamically controlling the flow rate through one or more variable frequency drive pumps of the external cooling loop.
4 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a turbidity monitoring system configured to measure an effluent quality of the non-potable wastewater.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the one or more controllers are further configured to modulate the flow rate based on the effluent quality.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers are further configured to modulate the flow rate based on one or more time-oriented energy pricing rules to minimize a peak hour cooling cost.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein modulating the flow rate through the external loop involves dynamically controlling the flow rate based on heat load data associated with the one or more heat exchangers.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein modulating the flow rate involves maintaining a tower application rate of 0.8 to 1.0 gallons per minute per square foot.
9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein modulating the flow rate during a short-term peak load involves adjusting the tower application rate to 1.3 gallons per minute per square foot.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein modulating the flow rate involves adjusting the flow rate to maintain an effluent quality of below a biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) threshold of 10 mg/L.