ABN Amro Data Centre / UK

Planning / Implementation / Main components

Star Refrigeration Ltd
Trox AITCS Ltd

Refrigerant

Water (H₂O) / Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)

System start-up

2006

The Dutch bank ABN Amro works with 15 high-performance servers at the data centre of its London branch. To provide a controlled climate for this hardware, the refrigeration systems manufacturer Star Refrigeration built a low-energy-consumption carbon dioxide facility.

Demands

The facility should protect the servers from overheating in an environmentally friendly and efficient manner.

Solution

Star Refrigeration designed a refrigeration system that uses carbon dioxide to generate a total output of 300 kilowatts. The carbon dioxide is recondensed with water at 6°C via an indirect chilling cycle. The cooling is handled by ventilator units on the back of the server cabinets, where the carbon dioxide evaporates at 14°C and absorbs the heat siphoned off by the fans.

Type of facility

Two-stage refrigeration facility

Refrigerant

H₂O

Refrigerant volume

n/a

Refrigerant

CO₂

Refrigerating capacity

15 x 20 kW

Refrigerating temperature

14 ºC

Main components:

15 ventilator units, CO₂ condenser, heat exchangers, gravity flow pumps

Special features / Comments:

Carbon dioxide is an ideal refrigerant for IT climate control because it does not conduct electricity, which makes for safe operation. Its high effectiveness allows for fitting the cabinets with more servers than usual, resulting in space savings of over 50 percent. The operator has energy savings of 30 percent compared with pure cold-water cooling.

The facility has a CO₂ detector system for leak detection