Technical Field

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for removing heat from a data centre.

Background of the Invention

Data centres have become increasingly common as electronic equipment has become used ever more widely. In a typical data centre modules of electrically powered electronic equipment, being computer equipment such as equipment for data communications (including data

processing and/or storage equipment) or telecommunications equipment, are mounted in cabinets, often in tiers with space around them. Such cabinets, which may be open-sided or fully enclosed, are referred to as "racks". A typical data centre will have racks arranged side by side in several rows with each row containing several racks. Since the equipment is electrically powered and so many modules of equipment are provided a substantial amount of heat can be generated and a substantial amount of power consumed. It has been recognised that it is desirable to cool the equipment mounted in the racks and a wide variety of cooling arrangements for cooling equipment mounted in racks have been used. Generally, these rely on passing air, which may have been cooled to below room temperature through the racks. The warm air that is generated is either passed out to the environment, or is passed to a cooling, unit before being returned to pass through the racks again. Proposals for arrangements for cooling data centres are prevalent. For example US 6859366B and GB 2464284A describe such arrangements.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved apparatus and method for removing heat from a data centre and, in an especially preferred arrangement, an apparatus and method that can operate with a reduced impact on the environment and in particular require little or no external power input apart from solar power.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a method of removing heat from a room containing a data centre, the method including the steps of providing a data centre in a first room and using a heat transfer system to transfer heat from the first room to a second room in which an agricultural process is carried out, wherein a product of the agricultural process is used to generate energy which is used to provide at least some of the electrical power for the data centre.

The present invention identifies the special match that exists between the requirements of a data centre and the requirements of agricultural processes and sites those two very different technologies at a common location enabling a special symbiotic relationship to be created between them. There are many occasions where data centres can be located on land of relatively low value and away from city or town centres and there are also many occasions where agricultural processes may be improved or made more productive by providing warmth, but the warmth is generally not required to be very hot. The present invention recognises this special relationship and that by

transferring waste heat generated in a data centre to a room where an agricultural process is carried out an especially good combination can be achieved. Further symbiosis is introduced in this first aspect of the

invention because a product of the agricultural process is used to generate energy which is used to provide at least some of the electrical power for the data centre.

The agricultural process preferably comprises growth of algae. Preferably the algae are grown in

photobioreactors. The photobioreactors may be disposed in racks which may be disposed in the second room. The photobioreactors may be integrated into translucent walls or a translucent ceiling of the second room. The term "ceiling" as used herein may refer to: the uppermost part of a room, for example, a roof, which may or may not itself be waterproof and if not waterproof, may have a waterproof covering below it; or to a structure extending across the interior of a room near the top thereof but beneath an outermost structure which may be, for example, a

translucent and waterproof roof covering. The method may be carried out in the vicinity of seawater; the seawater may be used as a feedstock for the algae; clean water may be generated by the algae.

The agricultural process may alternatively or

additionally comprise growth of fungi. The fungi growth may take place in a darker location than the algae growth; for example, the fungi growth may take place below the algae growth, either in the same room as the algae growth or in a further room which may advantageously be disposed below the room in which algae is grown. Thus it will be understood that the "second" room may comprise more than one room.

Preferably, a product of the agricultural process is processed to generate a fuel. In one example, a product of the agricultural process is anaerobically digested to generate a fuel. The fuel may for example, be biogas, which may be used to power a generator to produce

electricity. The product of the agricultural process that is anaerobically digested may, for example, be an

agricultural crop and/or may comprise microalgae waste.

The fuel generated by the agricultural process may comprise biodiesel. The biodiesel may for example be generated from processing of microalgae. At least some of the biodiesel may be used to power a generator to produce electricity. The generator may be located in the second room or in a further room separate from the second room. At least some of the electricity is preferably used to power the data centre. In a case where algae is grown to provide biodiesel, waste material from the algae growth may be employed as a feedstock for the anaerobic digestion process.

The fuel generated by the agricultural process may additionally or alternatively comprise gas. The gas may be used to fuel a gas turbine. The turbine may be located in the second room or in a further room separate from the second room. In either case carbon dioxide and/or heat produced by the gas turbine may be used in the method of the invention; more generally, generation of the energy may also generate carbon dioxide which may be passed into the second room; such carbon dioxide may serve to increase the productivity of an agricultural process carried out in the second room; similarly, heat produced during generation of the electrical energy may be used to heat the second room.

When oxygen is produced in the agricultural process and a gas turbine is employed, the oxygen may be fed to the gas turbine to enhance the combustion in the turbine. The oxygen may be fed in a substantially pure form, but it may be preferred to feed oxygen enriched air, which may be a direct product of the agricultural process.

The heat transfer system may transfer heat from the first room to the second room by transferring a warm fluid, for example air, from the first room- to the second room.

The warm fluid may be cooled in a cooling unit prior to it passing through the data centre. The cooling unit may receive warm fluid from the first room and return cooler fluid to the first room. The cooling unit may supply heat from the cooling of the warm fluid to the second room. The heat may be supplied by the cooling unit supplying warm fluid to the second room, the fluid having been heated directly or indirectly by the warm fluid received from the first room or being fluid that has been received from the first room and further heated.

The data centre preferably includes a plurality of racks, each mounting a plurality of electrically powered modules of electronic equipment and fluid is preferably warmed by passing it through at least some of the racks to cool the equipment.

According to the first aspect of the invention, there is also provided a construction including a first room in which a data centre is provided and a second room for carrying out an agricultural process, a heat transfer system for transferring heat from the first room to the second room, and a generator which is arranged to be powered at least partly by a product of the agricultural process and to generate energy which is used to provide at least some of the electrical power for the data centre.

It is within the scope of the invention for the first and second rooms to be in the same building, but it will normally be preferred that the first room is in a first building and the second room is in a second building separate from the first. Each building can then be designed according to its own particular needs. The buildings may be adjacent to one another and even

adjoining, but it also possible for them to be separated by a significant distance of the order of tens of metres or more. In a case where there is a separation of tens of metres or more it may be desirable for any heat transfer path between the buildings to be thermally insulated; for example if a heat transfer fluid is passed through one or more ducts or pipes it may be desirable that those ducts or pipes are thermally insulated.

The second room for carrying out an agricultural process may be designed in any appropriate way according to the particular agricultural process (es) being carried out in the room. For example the second room may have one or more walls and/or a ceiling of which a major part is translucent. The second room may comprise a greenhouse. The room may be arranged to grow a crop in the ground and/or in one or more tiers above ground.

One or more photobioreactors may be provided in the second room. The photobioreactors may be integrated into translucent walls or a translucent ceiling of the second room.

The construction may further include an anaerobic digester for generating a fuel from the product of the agricultural process. The digester may be located in the second room or in a further room separate from the second room.

The generator may be a biodiesel generator.

The heat transfer system is preferably arranged to transfer heat from the first room to the second room by transferring a warm fluid from the first room to the second room. Commonly the warm fluid will be air. The air may have become warm as a result of being passed through racks in the data centre. Such passage of air through racks may be simply flow of air through free spaces, caused for example by convection or a fan, or it may be partially or fully ducted flow. Another possibility is that the warm fluid is not air that has passed through the racks but rather is a fluid that has been warmed by heat from the racks, for example by air that has passed through the racks. In - such a case the fluid may be a liquid.

In the case where photobioreactors are provided, the warm fluid entering the second room may pass through or under the photobioreactors. The warm fluid entering the second room is preferably passed into an open space in the room below the photobioreactors. Another possibility is for it to be guided through one or more conduits below the photobioreactors. In an especially simple embodiment of the invention, warm fluid, for example air, from the first room is simply passed to the second room and then passes out of the second room into the exterior surroundings or back into the first room where it is warmed again as it cools the data centre. It is however preferred to provide a cooling unit for cooling the warm fluid prior to it passing through the data centre. The cooling unit is preferably arranged to receive warm fluid from the first room and return cooler fluid to the first room. The cooling unit may comprise any suitable form of heat pump for extracting the heat from the warm fluid. The cooling unit is preferably arranged to supply heat generated from cooling the warm fluid to the second room. That heat can be supplied again as warm fluid, for example air, heated by the operation of the cooling unit; the warm fluid may be fluid that has been removed from the first room and further warmed in the cooling unit and/or it may be separate fluid, for example air taken from the surroundings of the cooling unit .

The cooling unit may be located in one of the first and second rooms, or outside them, but it will usually be preferred for it to be inside the first room. It may be in a third room which may be in the first or second building or in a third building.

The data centre may include a plurality of racks, each mounting a plurality of. electrically powered modules of equipment. The equipment may be electronic equipment. For example, the equipment may be computer equipment. It may be data communications or telecommunications equipment.

The second room for carrying out an agricultural process may be designed in any appropriate way according to the particular agricultural process (es) being carried out in the room. For example the second room may have walls and/or a ceiling of which a major part is translucent. The second room may comprise a greenhouse. The room may be arranged to grow a crop in the ground and/or in one or more tiers above ground.

The present invention has a broadest aspect in which the feature of a product of the agricultural process being used to generate energy which is used to provide at least some of the electrical power for the data centre is merely an optional feature.. According to this broadest aspect of the invention, there is provided a construction including a first room in which a data centre is provided and a second room for carrying out an agricultural process, and a heat transfer system for transferring heat from the first room to the second room. Similarly, according to this broadest aspect of the invention there is provided a method of removing heat from a room containing a data centre, the method. including the steps of providing a data centre in a first room and using a heat transfer system to transfer heat from the first room to a second room for carrying out an agricultural process. Such a method and apparatus of the present invention according to this broadest aspect may include any of the optional features referred to elsewhere in this specification.

It will be appreciated that the apparatus and method of the invention as described herein are closely related and that therefore essential or preferred features of one may, unless indicated otherwise or clearly inappropriate, be incorporated into the other. Any aspect of the method of the invention may use any form of the apparatus of the invention. Similarly, an apparatus of the invention may be so configured as to be suitable for use in a method according to any form of the invention. Features described above in respect of the apparatus of the invention may be incorporated into the method of the invention and vice versa .

Brief Description of the Drawings

By way of example embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, of which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a basic construction comprising first and second buildings; and

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic representation similar to

Fig.l in certain respects but illustrating various additional elements of embodiments of the invention.

Detailed Description of Embodiments

Fig. 1 shows a first building comprising in this example a single room 1 in which four rows of racks 4 are provided. A second building 2, which in this example is also a single room, is designed to suit carrying out certain agricultural processes, typically the growing of one or more crops. A third building houses a cooling unit 3.

Each of the racks 4 may be of a construction that is known per se and may, just as one example, be of the form shown in GB2463956A. Such racks, when in use typically mount a number of modules of electrically powered

electronic equipment, for example computer servers, in tiers one above the other. Details of the design of such racks vary; some may be fully enclosed cabinets whilst others may be entirely open sided. Electrical power is therefore supplied to the racks 4, as shown

diagrammatically by arrow 5 in Fig. 1. Much of the power consumed by the electrically powered equipment is converted into heat. A special air cooling system may be provided in the rack to facilitate cooling, for example by generating flows of air through the racks or the equipment may simply be allowed to transfer heat into its immediate

surroundings, principally by convection. Whatever

particular design may be adopted the equipment in the racks generate heat and this may result in the air in the room 1 being too hot and requiring cooling. As already explained, many systems have already been proposed for providing such cooling.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings hot air in the first room 1 is taken out of the room, typically through an air duct, as shown

diagrammatically by the arrow 6 in Fig. 1, this arrow also showing that the hot air is transferred to the cooling unit 3. Within the cooling unit 3 is a heat pump or other heat transfer system which extracts heat from the hot air arriving in the cooling unit and returns cool air to the first room 1, typically through an air duct, as shown diagrammatically by the arrow 7 in Fig. 1. Of course one or more fans may be provided to create the airflow just described.

The cooling unit 3 receives electrical power to support its operation as shown diagrammatically by the arrow 8 in Fig. 1. Heat is generated in the cooling unit, mainly as a result of the removal of heat from the hot air arriving from the first room 1, but also from the power consumed by the cooling unit. That heat is then

transferred to the building 2 as shown diagrammatically by the arrow 9 in Fig. 1. The way in which this heat is transferred will depend upon the requirements of the building 2 which in turn will depend upon the agricultural processes being carried out in that building. Typically, hot air will be supplied through a duct to the building 2; the temperature of that hot air is higher than ambient temperature but may be higher or lower than the temperature of the hot air arriving in the cooling unit from the first room 1. The hot air supplied to the building 2 may or may not be hot air received from the room 1. If it does include air from the room 1, that hot air may have been heated further by heat from the cooling unit 3, raising its temperature, or may be diluted with air at ambient

temperature, lowering its temperature to a level between ambient temperature and the temperature of the hot air supplied to the cooling unit from the room 1. Thus it is possible to arrange for air supplied to the building 2 to be at any desired temperature within a wide range. As described in more detail elsewhere in this

specification, a product of the agricultural process carried out in the second building 2 is used to generate energy which is used to provide at least some of the electrical power (designated in Fig. 1 by arrow 5) for the data centre in room 1.

Referring now to Fig.2, the room 1 and the cooling unit 3 of Fig.l are again shown but various other buildings in addition to the second building 2 are shown. In Fig. 2 several other such buildings are shown but it should be understood that they are not necessarily all provided; in some cases it may be preferred to select one or more of those other buildings only. Also, it should be understood that whilst in the illustrated embodiment different facilities are provided in separate buildings, it is within the scope of the invention for them to be in the same building, for example within the building 2 in the same room or in a separate room. Similarly, whilst Fig.2 shows several agricultural processes being carried out within the second building 2, the different processes may be carried out in different buildings or some of the processes may not be carried out at all.

In Fig. 2, there is shown a building housing a turbine room 13, another building housing an anaerobic digester 11 and a further building 24 for treating microalgae biomass. There is particular advantage in providing the anaerobic digester in a separate building because the process of anaerobic digestion is potentially explosive and highly toxic. In the building 2, an agricultural crop 18 is shown being grown in a first part of the building; arrays of photobioreactors 15 are shown in tiers in a neighbouring part of the building 2; further photobioreactors 16 are shown integrated into a portion of the roof of the building 2, the whole of the roof being translucent; fungi 17 are shown being grown in the building 2 below photobioreactors 16 which block much of the light from reaching the fungi 17. Also a room 29 is shown within a lower region of the building 2 and, for example, fungi may be grown in that room, which may have only limited light.

Arrowed lines in Fig.2 illustrate various transfers of materials energy or the like from one region to another: line 10 shows the crop 18 being passed to the

anaerobic digester 11;

line 12 shows gas generated in the digester 11 being passed back to the turbine room 13 to power the turbines; line 14 shows carbon dioxide and/or heat generated in the turbine room 13 being passed into the building 2 (in the example shown the turbine room has a chimney from which the carbon dioxide and/or heat is taken);

line 19 shows some heat being lost from the system through the roof of the building 2;

line 20 shows digestate from the anaerobic digester 11 being passed into the building 2 to act as a fertiliser for the crop 18, the algae and/or the fungi;

line 21 shows seawater being introduced into the photobioreactors to feed the algae; line 22 shows clean water as an output of the

installation, generated by the algae;

line 23 shows microalgae biomass passing from the building 2 into a building 24 where it is processed;

line 25 shows biodiesel fuel being passed from the building 24 to the turbines in the turbine room 13;

line 26 shows microalgae waste from the building 24 being passed to the anaerobic digester 11;

line 27 showing oxygen enriched air being taken from the building 2 from which it has been extracted by a degassing unit 30 and passed to the turbines in the turbine room 13;

as will be understood, electrical power generated in the turbines in the turbine room 13 is passed to the data centre as shown by line 5 in Fig. 2.

It should be understood that the present invention is concerned with bringing together in a special symbiotic relationship various apparatus and processes, each of which are known per se. The invention does not arise from the particular design of the individual elements which may be of a kind that is well known, but from their interaction.

An installation of the kind described above is suitable for location on poor or contaminated land. In Fig.2 the installation is on contaminated land 28. The installation can result in the release to the atmosphere of much less green house gases than does the power generation needed for a conventional data centre and can thereby offer economic advantages by benefiting from incentive schemes and the like.

In the description above, particular examples, together with certain variations, have been described, but it should be understood that many other variations and modifications are also possible.

Where in the foregoing description, integers or elements are mentioned which have known, obvious or foreseeable equivalents, then such equivalents are herein incorporated as if individually set forth. Reference should be made to the claims for determining the true scope of the present invention, which should be construed so as to encompass any such equivalents. It will also be appreciated by the reader that integers or features of the invention that are described as preferable, advantageous, convenient or the like are optional and do not limit the scope of the independent claims.