Global Immersion Cooling Market Overview
The global immersion cooling market reached US$ XX million in 2022 and is expected to record significant growth by reaching up to US$ XX million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.3% during the forecast period (2023-2030).
Immersing servers, GPUs, ASICs and other computer components, including memory, discs and CPUs, into a non-conductive fluid to cool the systems is known as immersion cooling. This efficient cooling technique provides higher efficiencies. Immersion cooling is helpful for various reasons, including lowering cooling costs, avoiding fan and power supply replacement, improving density, lowering carbon footprints, limiting downtime, boosting dependability and overclocking to boost performance. Companies that offer immersion cooling services cooperate with numerous technological industries and follow several standards and guidelines. Some industries that need testing, inspection and certification services are agriculture, automotive, raw materials, IT and electronics, environmental protection, food testing and oil and gas.
Global Immersion Cooling Market Dynamics
The increasing demand for immersion cooling in computer systems is a major market driver for the global immersion cooling market. However, a lack of standardization could be a major market restraint.
Increasing demand for immersion cooling in the computer systems
Direct submersion of IT gear in a non-conductive liquid during immersion cooling aids in improving the thermal design. Keeping temperatures below the thermal limit boosts hardware density and increases processor utilization. In server rooms, the noise is greatly reduced. Information technology equipment is protected from environmental pollutants like dust and sulfur thanks to immersion cooling.
The industry will develop due to rising internet usage, AI, cloud computing and high-performance computing (HPC). The introduction of new immersion cooling products is increasing. For instance, Asperitas and Shell introduced the S5X shell immersion cooling fluid in February 2020. Shell’s gas-to-liquids technology creates the synthetic, single-phase immersion cooling fluid known as Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid S5X from gas. It can be utilized in pump/forced circulation systems from other suppliers, but it is best suited for Asperitas’ immersion cooling solutions that rely on natural convection.
Fujitsu introduced the Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY Liquid Immersion Cooling System in Japan in September 2018. By submerging the IT equipment in cooling fluid, the cooling system is intended to cool the entire gadget evenly. Compared to the current air cooling solutions, it reduces the server system’s overall power usage by around 40%.
Lack of standardization
Due to its many advantages, immersion cooling has witnessed increasing market share and adoption in recent years. Although the idea behind immersion cooling was developed in the middle of the 20th century, the practical implementation is relatively recent and has not yet been standardized for use across many industries.
However, there are very few industry standards and guidelines for immersion cooling, especially as the use of powerful servers increases and its acceptance increases. Since standardized goods are interoperable with various systems, standardization is greatly desired in the computer business. Because of the lack of standardization, each application requires a unique solution. The compatibility of the immersion cooling system with the computer or data server it will be deployed on must be assessed by computer engineers. The evaluation may be expensive, resulting in time and financial waste. Furthermore, capacity increase is prevented since the cooling system must be changed every time.
COVID-19 Impact Analysis
The following parameters are among COVID-19’s two main disruptive effects. The pandemic’s effects on the supply chain, which affect both the availability of raw materials and the sales of finished goods, have the most overall effects. Second, the production of immersion cooling systems necessitates several manufacturing and development procedures significantly hampered by government laws to reduce worker numbers in reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdowns.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s social and professional lives quickly migrated online. Due to people working from home, using telemedicine for doctor’s appointments and using internet streaming services to pass the time, in-home data consumption has skyrocketed. In the first three weeks of March 2020, data usage climbed by 18% in the in-home sector compared to the same period in 2019, with a 34% increase in smartphone data usage. It is hardly surprising that data centers operate fully to meet the rising demand for data. The vast energy required to run a data center is a significant challenge. Most energy costs in data centers are incurred specifically for cooling electronics. The CPUs in data centers produce heat; without adequate cooling, the internal device temperatures rise and the equipment becomes less effective. Since immersion cooling is a very effective cooling mechanism, the pandemic saw widespread use of the related technology.
However, the market prospects for immersion cooling are anticipated to surpass its past glory as the global economy and industries return to their old selves and are even displaying more improvement than in earlier case scenarios. Immersion cooling is anticipated to grow in popularity on the international market due to the growing use of information technologies like machine learning, AI and the Internet of Things. For instance, Hong Kong data centers have already transitioned to improvements in immersion cooling as of November 9, 2021.
Global Immersion Cooling Market Segment Analysis
The global immersion cooling market is classified based on product type, cooling fluid, application and region.
Ability to reduce overheating and impact of migration corrosion
Mineral oil is a dielectric fluid utilized as heat transfer for immersion cooling electronics and bit miners due to their low cost and dielectric properties. Because of its dielectric properties, it is also called dielectric oil. Mineral oil comprises complex paraffin chains of straight, branched and aromatic hydrocarbons with 15 or more carbon. The physical features of mineral oil are dictated by its composition, defined by the amount of carbon determined by crude oil.
Thus, mineral oil variations have physical properties such as boiling points ranging from 300oC to 600oC and specific gravity ranging from 0.820 for base oils or mild paraffin operations to more than 1.0 for oils in high aromatic processes. In addition, mineral oil is insoluble in water and alcohol but soluble in chloroform, ether, benzene, protelium ether and carbon disulfide. The immersion cooling system that uses mineral oil as the medium has a heat capacity several times more than the immersion cooling system that uses conventional air cooling as the medium. The benefits of using mineral oil for computer cooling systems include providing a simple design compared to conventional cooling using fans, solving the overheating problem and reducing the impact of migration corrosion. In addition, its dielectric properties do not affect computer reliability or component compatibility or disrupt computer systems.
Mineral oil collects heat generated by servers in an immersion cooling system. This heat is then fed into a coolant distribution unit (CDU), where a heat exchanger transfers it to a different liquid - often water. The device then chills the water and discharges the heat into the atmosphere. Alternatively, the water is sent through a warm water loop before being cooled by a cooling tower. Immersion cooling or immersing servers in heat-absorbing mineral oil for data centers is available in a relatively tiny market segment. However, according to Dell’Oro Group analyst Lucas Beran, immersion cooling is nearing a tipping point as thermal management becomes a rising problem within data centers.
The components are vulnerable to the corrosive effects of the many naturally occurring sulfur compounds in mineral oils. Sulfur is a naturally occurring chemical found in crude oil. Over 30 sulfur compounds are commonly detected in mineral crude oils. The sulfur species are then present in lubricant base oils, causing issues with any active metals exposed to the mineral oil. Corrosive sulfur is not only an issue but also quite expensive. Sulfur Corrosion caused by mineral oils can cost tens of millions of dollars each year, not including the costs of maintenance, mitigation, damage and downtime caused by these incidents.
Global Immersion Cooling Market Geographical Analysis
Expanding urbanization and industrialization, rising energy demand and changes in existing infrastructure
Europe holds a significant immersion cooling market due to growing data center cooling services demand in the region. U.K., Germany and France have been the countries with the most data centers in Europe. Western Europe is well-developed and has many colocation data centers and service providers. For instance, according to per Datacenter map, as of 2020 in Europe, there are 1316 colocation data centers from 23 countries in Europe, with countries having data centers such as Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and UK 35, 30, 69, 59, 80, 117 and 268 respectively.
Industry firms are targeting these countries for new technology investments. They can also develop partnerships with up-and-coming data center firms to meet their needs at a low cost, which might help the European data center cooling market to grow throughout the projected period. Furthermore, Over the last few years, Ireland has been increasingly popular as a data center destination. Ireland now has 53 active data centers, with eight more under construction and another 26 with planning clearance, predicted to treble by 2025. As more people depend on the internet to meet their everyday requirements, the fast rise of data centers will only accelerate. People were more reliant on online buying after the outbreak of COVID-19. Many first-time shoppers now embrace internet buying to reduce their need to visit stores. With more and more activities migrating online, data centers will become increasingly important. For instance, on October 2020, to accelerate the global expansion of Green Revolution Cooling Inc. in Europe and the Nordic region, the company teamed with Total Data Center Solutions, a firm that specializes in mission-critical and innovative data center infrastructure solutions. The alliance is focused on developing new carbon-reduction and energy-efficiency technologies.
Furthermore, Bitcoin and numerous other cryptocurrencies use cryptocurrency mining to generate new coins and validate new transactions. It entails using global, decentralized networks of computers to verify and secure blockchains and virtual ledgers that record bitcoin transactions. Cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency mining, for example, is widely considered legal in Europe. The same applies to most countries across Central, Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western Europe.
However, even though bitcoin is mostly unregulated in Europe, many governments, like UK, have informed their citizens that digital assets would be considered foreign currency for the most part. However, not every European country appears to be OK with energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining. The Swedish government recently requested that the European Union prohibit all forms of crypto mining within the EU.
Sweden’s stance was attributed to increased energy use, threatening its ability to achieve its Paris Climate Agreement obligations. Thus, a growing ban on the increasing use of cyrptocurring mining in European countries is expected to hurdle the growth of immersion cooling systems in the region as immersion cooling systems are extremely efficient at removing heat from miners than air-cooled systems, especially at scale.
However artificial industry holds a major market share in the European immersion cooling market, adding value to the growth of the product in the region. Artificial intelligence (AI) implementation is crucial for small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the EU to succeed. AI solutions are becoming increasingly significant in the industrial sector as they aid in optimizing manufacturing processes, predicting machinery problems and developing more efficient smart services. European industry can also use big data and smart ICT to boost efficiency and performance while paving the way for innovation. Ireland has the greatest percentage of enterprises utilizing AI applications among EU countries. Thus, a tremendous market growth trend for the AI industry in the EU region is expected to create huge growth opportunities for immersion cooling to grow.
Global Immersion Cooling Market Competitive Landscape
The global immersion cooling market is extremely competitive due to the presence of major players such as Fujitsu Limited, Green Revolution Cooling Inc., Submer Technologies, Asperitas, LiquidStack, Midas Immersion Cooling, Iceotope Technologies Limited, Liquidcool Solutions, Inc., Downunder Geosolutions Pty Ltd and DCX The Liquid Cooling Company
Fujitsu Limited
Overview: Fujitsu Limited is a company that specializes in information technology. The company offers a wide range of services, including information technology development, network and telecommunication solutions, system platform adjustments and more. The company provides 5G networks, network switches, optical networks, open networks, data center connectivity, electronic devices and air conditioning. Fujitsu is the brand name under which it sells its products.
Automotive, manufacturing, retail, financial services, transportation, public sector, energy and utilities and service providers are the industries the company serves. It operates across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, among other places. The headquarters of Fujitsu is in Tokyo, Japan.
Product Portfolio:
• Liquid Immersion Cooling System: This cooling system is meant to evenly cool all IT devices by submerging them in cooling fluid. Because large-scale cooling equipment is not required, the technology reduces total server system power consumption by around 40% (1) when compared to traditional air cooling systems. Due to this considerable power usage reduction, customers can roughly double the server density in the same installation space.
Key Development:
• On September 06, 2020, Fujitsu Introduced a Liquid Immersion Cooling System to Reduce the Total Cost of Ownership. The Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY Liquid Immersion Cooling System is already available in Japan, with a global rollout planned for the future. The cooling system is meant to cool all IT devices evenly by submerging them in cooling fluid. Because large-scale cooling equipment isn’t needed, the system’s size is reduced.
Why Purchase the Report?
• To visualize the global immersion cooling market segmentation based on product type, cooling fluid, application and region, as well as understand key commercial assets and players.
• Identify commercial opportunities in the global immersion cooling market by analyzing trends and co-development.
• Excel data sheet with numerous data points of immersion cooling market-level with four segments.
• PDF report consisting of cogently put together market analysis after exhaustive qualitative interviews and in-depth market study.
• Technology mapping available as excel consisting of key products of all the major market players
The global immersion cooling market report would provide approximately 102 tables, 98 figures and almost 180 pages.
Technology Audience 2023
• Manufacturers/ Buyers
• Industry Investors/Investment Bankers
• Research Professionals
• Emerging Companies