

How key developments in the immersive space are keeping pace with the global sustainability push in the data center industry’s “summer of liquid cooling.”
If 2023 marked the data center industry’s “summer of AI” in terms of technological and market advances, it certainly makes sense to think in terms of this year’s “summer of liquid cooling.” As empirically confirmed by the zeitgeist absorbed into the annual industry events Data Center World and 7×24 Exchange, the clarion call for such a contest may have come this spring with the March launch of the Liquid Cooling Coalition (LCC).
According to the LCC’s launch announcement, the coalition’s mission is to “promote the widespread adoption of liquid cooling solutions for information and communications technology equipment in the data center and beyond. Guided by a clear vision of an environmentally sustainable digital world, the coalition is committed to educating policymakers and the public, advocating for supportive policies and promoting collaboration among industry stakeholders,” the announcement added.
In addition to LCC’s stated intent to promote sustainability in data centers, the coalition’s executive director, Erica Thomas, former director of Green Grid, told DCF that the group’s goal is to advance the entire energy cooling technology ecosystem. data center liquid across a wide range of stakeholders. These players include industrial refrigerant manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, high-performance computing application operators, and data center providers.
By promoting liquid cooling technology solutions in data centers, Thomas said the coalition seeks to significantly reduce the industry’s resource consumption, minimize its environmental impact, while improving the efficiency and resilience of digital infrastructure. As further explained in the LCC launch announcement, “In the era of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, liquid cooling is needed to unlock the full potential of highly efficient and sustainable information and communication equipment while supporting innovative policy solutions and advancing education.” and outreach initiatives, the LCC aims to accelerate the adoption of liquid cooling technologies globally.”
LCC founding companies include Ada Infrastructure, ENEOS, Intel, Submer, Shell, Supermicro, Wyoming Hyperscale White Box, and Vertiv. A Year of Advances in Immersion Liquid Cooling Technology for Data Centers
In February, we noted that immersion cooling technology, long considered a niche, looked set to take a larger share of the data center spotlight this year. Data released this month by industry analyst Verified Market Research (VMR) confirms that earlier impression. The latest report by VMR (which has multiple global offices in Lewes, Delaware, Pune, India and Dubai, UAE) predicts that the global immersion cooling market will grow at a CAGR of 22.50% between 2024 and 2031.
The VMR report further states that the market was valued at USD 293.77 million in 2024 and is expected to reach approximately USD 1.49 billion by the end of the forecast period. The major players in the global data center immersion cooling market, identified by VMR, include: LiquidStack; Fujitsu; Green Revolution Cooling (GRC); Submersible; Asperita; Midas Green Technologies; Iceotope Technologies; LiquidCool Solutions; DUG Technology and DCX. Other key players in this space include CoolIT Systems, Motivair, and Boyd, which are the three largest liquid cooling companies, according to Dell’Oro. The researcher believes that the immersion cooling market is driven by the increasing power density of data centers, growing demand for efficient thermal management solutions, and advances in high-performance computing (HPC). However, the market growth is somewhat limited by high upfront costs, complex implementation processes, and lack of standardized solutions. Additionally, concerns about refrigerant compatibility and environmental impact are cited as challenges.
Despite these limitations, ongoing technological innovations and increased awareness of the technology’s significant energy efficiency benefits are expected to drive market expansion, according to VMR.
“Many have challenged the technological runway of single-phase immersion cooling,” remarked Daniel Pope, co-founder and CEO of Submer. “The FCHS is the undeniable proof that immersion is here to compete head-on with other liquid cooling technologies, including direct liquid cooled water-based cold plates.”
This March, global data center developer Solvenz unveiled plans for a partnership with Hypertec, JLL and Submer. Solvenz plans to develop three state-of-the-art data centers with a critical IT load of 465 MW, engineered to meet HPC demands for AI and ML data processing workloads.
Hypertec, Solvenz’s data center architect and builder, recently announced the completion of an upgrade to host one of world’s largest and greenest immersion-cooled supercomputers. This supercomputer’s immersion cooling technology and Hypertec’s Trident line of immersion-born servers form the foundation for the eco-friendly HPC cooling technology that Solvenz will look to deploy in its data centers, with commercial real estate firm JLL scouting locations in the deal.
Crucially, Solvenz will employ Submer’s SmartPod platform for single-phase immersion cooling technology capable of supporting 140 kW per rack. In contrast to the global average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), which typically ranges between 1.6 and 1.9 for rack densities of just 17 kW, the Submer technology’s PUE lands between 1.03 and 1.1.
In May, Submer announced yet another strategic immersion cooling partnership, this time with Dell Technologies and OEM integration partner UNICOM Engineering to deploy UNICOM servers based on Dell technology powered by Intel and NVIDIA products currently on the market.
“This partnership is harnessing the power of trusted Dell PowerEdge products, UNICOM Engineering’s extensive server design and integration expertise, and Submer’s high-efficiency and sustainable technology to pioneer immersion-cooled solutions in the market,” said Charles ‘Rusty’ Cone, General Manager at UNICOM Engineering.
Also in May, federal government technology incubator Sandia National Laboratories revealed that throughout this summer it is formally testing a commercial, nonconductive liquid immersion cooling system from Submer at the lab’s High Performance Computing center.
Submer notes that its single-phase immersion cooling system uses a biodegradable, nontoxic, nonflammable and noncorrosive liquid, which the company boasts as being 95% more efficient than traditional cooling technologies, while 1,400 times a better thermal conductor than air and eight times less electrically conductive.
Sandia researchers said direct immersion techniques may cut power use in compute-intensive HPC-AI clusters by 70%.
Shell Lubricants
Claiming its pillar of the 3-legged stool of data center immersion cooling technology represented by the LCC’s founding members’ listing is oil and gas company Shell, who in 2023 introduced a range of single-phase immersion cooling fluids aimed at data centers, as produced by its Shell Lubricants business.
Made from natural gas using Shell’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) process, the company says its GTL products are synthetic, colorless, odorless fluids which are inherently biodegradable to different extents, as well as stable and bearing excellent performance and material compatibility.
This January, Shell announced its deployment of GRC immersion tanks at a data center in Houston, Texas.
Shell’s place among the LCC’s founding members illustrates the emphasis coalition Executive Director Thomas places upon her group’s support for the entire technology ecosystem for liquid cooling. Shell, along with oil industry counterpart ExxonMobil, who in April announced a collaboration with Intel for liquid cooling of the company’s Xeon-based technology, are angling to become key providers of dielectric fluids used in immersion cooling systems.
Industry analyst VMR notes such dielectrics often include mineral oil, fluorocarbon-based fluids, and deionized water.
Meanwhile, Datacenter Dynamics last month reported that US food company Cargill has developed a plant-based immersion cooling fluid which data center startup Ultrascale Digital Infrastructure (UDI) wants to employ in immersion-cooled facilities across a waterless 52U rack design capable of cooling more than 300 kW per rack.
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“Many have challenged the single-phase immersion cooling technology platform,” said Daniel Pope, co-founder and CEO of Submer. “The FCHS is undeniable proof that immersion is here to compete directly with other liquid cooling technologies, including direct liquid-cooled water-based cold plates.” In March, global data center developer Solvenz unveiled its partnership plans with Hypertec, JLL, and Submer. Solvenz plans to develop three next-generation data centers with a critical IT load of 465 MW, designed to meet the HPC demands of AI and ML data processing workloads.
Hypertec, Solvenz’s data center architect and builder, recently announced the completion of an upgrade to house one of the world’s largest and greenest immersion-cooled supercomputers. The immersion cooling technology in this supercomputer and Hypertec’s Trident immersion server line form the basis of the green HPC cooling technology that Solvenz will seek to implement in its data centers, with commercial real estate firm JLL scouting locations in the deal.
Essentially, Solvenz will use Submer’s SmartPod platform for single-phase immersion cooling technology capable of supporting 140 kW per rack. In contrast to the average global Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), which typically ranges from 1.6 to 1.9 for rack densities up to 17 kW, Submer technology’s PUE is between 1.03 and 1.1.
In May, Submer announced another strategic immersion cooling partnership, this time with Dell Technologies and OEM integration partner UNICOM Engineering to implement UNICOM servers based on Dell technology based on currently available Intel and NVIDIA products.
“This partnership leverages the power of reliable Dell PowerEdge products, UNICOM Engineering’s extensive server design and integration expertise, and Submer’s sustainable, high-efficiency technology to pioneer immersion cooling solutions in the market,” said Charles “Rusty” Cone, general manager of UNICOM Engineering. Also in May, the federal government’s technology incubator Sandia National Laboratories revealed that it is formally testing a commercial, nonconductive liquid immersion cooling system from Submer in the lab’s high-performance computing center this summer.
Submer notes that its single-phase immersion cooling system uses a biodegradable, nontoxic, nonflammable, and noncorrosive liquid, which the company claims is 95 percent more efficient than traditional cooling technologies, while being 1,400 times better at conducting heat than air and eight times less conductive of electricity. Sandia researchers say direct immersion techniques can reduce energy consumption in compute-intensive HPC-AI clusters by 70%.
Shell Lubricant
Oil and gas company Shell, which in 2023 introduced a range of single-phase immersion cooling fluids for data centers, produced by its Shell Lubricants business, says its three-legged stool, a pillar of data center immersion cooling technology, is represented by the list of one of the founding members of the LCC is oil and gas company Shell. GTL products, manufactured from natural gas using Shell’s gas-to-liquid (GTL) process, are colorless, odorless synthetic fluids that are inherently biodegradable to varying degrees, are stable, and have excellent performance and material compatibility.
In January, Shell announced the deployment of GRC immersion tanks at a data center in Houston, Texas. Shell’s place among the founding members of the LCC illustrates the emphasis coalition CEO Thomas places on his group’s support for the entire liquid-cooling technology ecosystem. Shell, along with oil-industry peer ExxonMobil, which announced a collaboration with Intel on liquid-cooling the company’s Xeon-based technology in April, aim to become key suppliers of dielectric fluids used in immersion cooling systems. Industry analyst VMR notes that such dielectrics often include mineral oil, fluorocarbon fluids, and deionized water.
Meanwhile, Datacenter Dynamics reported last month that U.S. food company Cargill has developed a plant-based immersion cooling fluid that data center startup Ultrascale Digital Infrastructure (UDI) wants to deploy in immersion-cooled facilities in a 52U waterless rack design capable of cooling 300 kW per rack. Stay up to date with the evolving world of data centers and cloud computing by connecting with Data Center Frontier on LinkedIn, following us on X/Twitter and Facebook, and subscribing to our weekly newsletter using the form below.