Circular thinking: A new imperative for data centre cooling

Author: Joe Peck

In this article for DCNN, Todd Scheving, Business Development Director – Global Data Center at A-Gas, outlines why a circular approach to refrigerant management is becoming increasingly important as data centre operators balance cooling requirements with sustainability and supply considerations:

The AI revolution has sparked heated debate about data centre cooling. Refrigerant decisions are emerging earlier in the value chain, spurring pressing procurement and sustainability conversations. This is for good reason: the choices operators make today will shape emission footprints for the next decade. Maintaining a circular approach to data centre cooling is more important than ever.

The industry is feeling the effects. Firms are engaging with refrigerant suppliers far earlier in the planning process, integrating their sustainability teams. Questions about supply security and reclaim options are now a fixture in project conversations. In short, sustainability targets are turning refrigerants into strategic assets that must be managed.

This reclassification from commodity to asset matters. Managing refrigerants holistically reveals hidden problems. Often, the solutions involve maintaining a circular approach to cooling: recover, reclaim, and destroy only what cannot be restored to spec. Reclaimed refrigerants have a significantly lower carbon footprint than virgin alternatives because the molecules already exist. Rather than venting (which is illegal across North America and the European Union) or leaving them in storage, the goal is to keep refrigerants in circulation. Circular thinking is the environmentally responsible path and, increasingly, the economically rational one.

End-of-life handling is responsible for much of the industry’s emission problem. Unfortunately, despite it being illegal, venting is often a by-product of strict time constraints during decommissioning or servicing. The solution is to engage dedicated, high-speed refrigerant recovery teams to recover refrigerants and deliver them to reclaimers for reprocessing for future reuse.

Recovery is the future of cooling. There are enough HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) already installed today to meet industry needs for the foreseeable future, provided they are managed responsibly. The infrastructure exists; operators must now partner with recovery teams to treat refrigerants like the strategic assets they were always meant to be.

For more from A-Gas, click here.