Submer Academy - page 3

an evb (electric vehicle battery) is a rechargeable battery used to power the motor of a bev (battery electric vehicle) or of an hev (hybrid electric vehicle).

an adiabatic tower is a fluid cooler that uses a closed circuit. an adiabatic evaporative cooler is basically a large fan that draws ambient air through water-moistened pads. as the air runs through the pads it cools down the water. the cooled water is then sent back where required (in case of a submer’s immersion cooling installation, to the smartpods heat exchanging system).

the temperature can be controlled by adjusting the air and water flow of the cooling tower. during the cooler months, the adiabatic system does not need water to lower the temperature, so it is actually switched off and works without even having to wet the pads. for the hottest summer days, the wettening of the pads allows to reduce the temperature below the ambient one. all this is managed automatically by the tower depending on the outdoor temperature and humidity.

adiabatic cooling towers offer several advantages over traditional cooling systems with cooling towers or dry-coolers, for example:
• no consumption of process water (closed circuit)
• no use of refrigerant gas
• no health or environmental contamination (no legionella)
• no formation of limestone/scale
• no chemical treatment of water
• top performance even with air temperatures over 40°c
• best heat exchange at dry bulb conditions (air-water exchange ∆t 5°c)
• low noise levels
• low power consumption

reaching carbon neutrality (or having a net-zero carbon footprint) means achieving a balance between carbon emissions and carbon removal from the atmosphere. the removal of carbon emissions can be obtained through carbon offsetting procedures or directly eliminating all carbon emissions altogether.

computer room air conditioning (crac) units are devices used to cool computer rooms. a crac monitors and maintains the right temperature, air-distribution and humidity level so to guarantee a proper functioning of the datacenter.

a power shelf is a datacenter rack component that allows a smarter system management and distribution of the power to the rack. the idea behind a power shelf is to provide operators a more practical system to run any installation and maintenance procedure and operate power module exchange under live power operation. in submer’s liquid immersion cooling solutions designed according to the ocp principles of energy efficiency, the power shelf is directly connected to the busbar placed at the bottom of the tank.

a busbar is a device (usually a copper, brass, or aluminum strip) for collecting and distributing power locally. in relation to submer’s solutions which are designed according to the open compute project principles, the busbar is located at the bottom of the tank.

a microgrid is an energy system that operates self-sufficiently. this means that the microgrid can work connected to a bigger grid (macrogrid), but at the same time, it can be disconnected from the main grid and operate autonomously and independently. microgrids are used to provide energy in a smarter way to determined geographic areas, meeting specific energetic, economic or operational needs of customers.

dry coolers are heat-transfer devices that use air to remove excess heat into the atmosphere. usually, a dry cooler presents a heat exchanger (it can be either microchannel coils or a finned tube) and fans. the fans are responsible for directing the air flow through the heat exchanger. here is where the fluid (it can be water or another solution) is cooled and then circulated back into the system.

clearly, for a dry cooler to be efficient, the air temperature needs to be cooler than the water (or any other glycol solution) in the system. this explains why, for example, dry coolers work better in cold climate regions (while wet cooling towers are more efficient in hot and dry climates). dry coolers tend to not be affected by air humidity, on the contrary of wet cooling towers.

dry coolers have a limited cooling capacity, compared to wet cooling towers: the first one only brings the water temperature down to the ambient temperature (additional cooling can be achieved in other ways), while the latter can bring the water temperature up to 5 degrees down the ambient temperature.

a heatsink is an object that absorbs and dissipates the heat produced by any electronic or/and mechanical devices (in case of immersion cooling, to a surrounding fluid). the goal of a heatsink is to avoid any overheating of the device generating heat. usually, heatsinks are made of metal and disperse the heat throughout a combination of convection and conduction.