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Leading global speciality chemicals innovator Perstorp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG), has worked closely with Intel’s Open IP Advanced Liquid Cooling team in recent years. Together they have developed a high-performance synthetic thermal management fluid specifically designed for immersion cooling in data centres. They initiated the partnership in 2022 as a part of continuing efforts to create more sustainable data centre cooling solutions. More recently, the partners participated in COMPUTEX 2024 in Taipei where Intel showcased its Gaudi 3 AI accelerator solution. The accelerator uses Intel’s SuperFluid Cooling Technology, which leverages the low viscosity and high flash point balance of Perstorp’s advanced synthetic thermal management fluid.
With the rising demand for AI applications, tech companies are continually engaging in a race to enhance computing power. Liquid cooling technology is a key to achieving high-density deployments in data centres. Stakeholders, from chip manufacturers to data center ODMs, end-user OEMs, and cooling ecosystem partners, are all involved in the development of advanced liquid cooling technologies. These efforts aim not only to meet high heat-transfer efficiency demands but also to reduce energy consumption and promote sustainable development.
Valentina Serra-Holm, Perstorp’s Vice President for Engineered Fluids, stated, “The recent surge in the AI race has brought a lot of attention to liquid cooling. Our innovative capabilities in engineered fluids have been widely recognised. In collaboration with Intel, we have developed an advanced synthetic thermal management fluid suitable for their SuperFluid technology, achieving the critical goals of high thermal performance and low viscosity. We aim to continue, and expand, our collaboration with our value chain partners to help push forward the field of immersion cooling.”
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Perstorp joined Intel’s Open IP Advanced Liquid Cooling ecosystem in 2022, focusing on the demands of immersion cooling and cold plate cooling. During this collaboration, the focus of Perstorp’s product development has been on innovating a fluid that has low viscosity and long product life, as well as outstanding dielectric and fire-safety properties.
In comparison to conventional, single-phase immersion cooling with its cooling capacity of about 500W per chip, Intel’s SuperFluid technology, which uses air as a lubrication system, can increase cooling capacity to 800W. The cooling capacity per chip can be further improved to 1500W when this is combined with the low viscosity properties of Perstorp’s advanced synthetic thermal management fluid, together with flow field management, optimised system control, and intelligent management of the Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU). This meets the needs of future high-end AI chips while complying with global requirements for data centre power usage effectiveness (PUE).
Beyond the high performance and efficiency benefits in-use, Perstorp has worked on enhancing the fluid’s intrinsic sustainability profile. More concretely, the fluid is PFAS-free, and therefore has a low global warming potential (>1) and an ozone depletion potential of zero. The tested fluid is also readily biodegradable and has an improved toxicity profile relative to existing solutions.
In addition, the fluid has been created with future sourcing options in mind, allowing for the potential shift to up to 100% renewable or recycled traceable mass-balanced raw materials in the future. This is in line with Perstorp’s long-term ambition and guiding star to become Finite Material Neutral. This, among other things, involves a full shift to renewable and recycled raw materials.
