Shell Liquid Cooling Fluids: Improving efficiency in high-performance computing
Discover how Shell’s innovative Liquid Cooling Fluids can help data centres and other facilities meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing while achieving their operational and environmental goals.
What are liquid cooling fluids?
Liquid cooling fluids are an efficient way to absorb and dissipate the heat generated by electronic components – especially those used in computers and data centre hardware.
Immersion cooling fluids are dielectric, which means they do not conduct electricity and do not corrode the equipment, making it safe to submerge electrical equipment in them.
Solutions
Direct-to-chip cooling
Often used in data centres to cool high-performance components like central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), direct-to-chip cooling is as its name suggests. It delivers fluid to a cold plate heat exchanger placed on the component, allowing it to pass directly by the heat source. This makes the extraction of heat more efficient2, helping to handle the heat output of components such as the high-density GPU clusters used in AI systems.
Precision cooling
Precision cooling systems extract heat from specific areas of equipment, making sure critical (and heat-intensive) components get the cooling they need to operate at peak performance. Using a controlled flow of cooling fluid, these systems can maintain a stable temperature for components while reducing the consumption resources like water and energy2 – helping facilities to operate more efficiently and more sustainably2.
Immersion cooling
Full immersion cooling – also known as rack-based immersion cooling – involves immersing elements such as entire servers or networking equipment in non-conductive cooling fluid. The fluid then absorbs and dissipates the heat from all components. This can be effective for the high-density equipment used in data centres and high-performance computing operations and is highly scalable – with the ability to retrofit it within existing infrastructure.
Benefits of Liquid Immersion Cooling Fluids
Better performance
By transferring heat more efficiently than many air-cooling techniques (which use refrigerated air, fans and heatsinks), immersion cooling fluids can support overclocking and increase CPU speeds by up to 40%.1
More efficient operations
With no need for coolers, chillers, fans or evaporative cooling systems, immersion cooling fluids can help businesses cut the floor space needed to host their computing equipment by up to 80%.1
Greater energy efficiency
Immersion cooling fluids almost eliminate the need for the power-hungry air-based cooling systems, helping to reduce the energy footprint of a computing facility by up to 48.1
Increased profitability
By reducing electricity consumption and the need for intricate heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, immersion cooling fluids can reduce a data centre’s total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 33%.1
Easier to scale
As data centres expand to meet the growing demands of high-end computing, immersion cooling fluids offer an easier way to add scale and enable increased locational flexibility.
Improved sustainability
Providing greater operational and energy efficiency, immersion cooling fluids help businesses to achieve their sustainability goals – contributing to CO2 emissions reductions of up to 30%.1
Immersion vs. air cooling
Traditionally, facilities like data centres have relied on air-based cooling systems that require extensive equipment like fans and heatsinks to provide cool air – equipment that reduces operational efficiency through its need for additional space and high energy consumption.
Immersion cooling technology offers a completely different approach. Circulating specially formulated cooling fluids around the equipment, it dissipates heat effectively. This contributes to improved equipment performance through better temperature regulation while providing greater operational and energy efficiency.
Read whitepaper
What is immersion cooling fluid and why should you pay attention?
Become immersed in the world of liquid cooling, with a whitepaper that explores exactly what immersion cooling is and why it matters.
Covering different techniques and approaches, a detailed look at how it all works and the benefits of using liquid immersion cooling (operational and environmental), it provides a comprehensive look at why businesses should adopt the technology.
Discover more about why immersion cooling offers an effective way to manage the rapidly increasing computing needs of AI and other high-performance computing functions.
Watch videos
What are the key benefits of immersion cooling?
Read the transcript
Read the transcript
Title: {Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid animation (global version)}
Duration: {3:05} minutes
Description:
{Immersion cooling is a new innovation for data centre cooling, using specially designed dielectric coolant that absorbs heat from submerged server racks.}
{When compared to traditional air cooling, immersion cooling enables data centre operators to significantly reduce the need for installed hardware associated with server cooling and lower their costs, consumption and emissions.}
{Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid animation (global version)} Transcript
[Background music plays, sounds of computer mouse clicking and a computer notification chiming.]
{Music starts peaceful and sounds “bubbly”, it becomes more upbeat with a faster tempo.}
[Animated sequence]
{The animation continues throughout the video in a simple, stylised cartoon style.
A smart tablet screen appears showing stylised icons representing cloud computing, streaming, big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, social media. Zooming out to show two construction workers interacting with wifi-enabled technology, a man sitting at a computer looking at data charts, a woman working on a laptop and a man using a mobile phone against a stylised city backdrop.}
“Cloud computing, streaming, big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, social media. Society is demanding faster, more immediate data access.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{Three stylised buildings, like skyscrapers, representing data centres pop up in the middle of the frame. Four more stylised buildings representing infrastructure appear, two on each side of the frame.}
“This means more data centres and infrastructure growing at twenty percent a year.”
[Text displays]
{20%}
[Animated sequence continues]
{A stylised illustration of the earth seen from space appears in the middle of the frame. Eight data centre buildings pop up in a ring around the earth, connected to each other by a yellow line and lightning symbol representing electricity. The data centres are animated with yellow bars that continuously cycle from the bottom to the top of the building. A larger lightning symbol in a white ring appears in the middle of the frame.}
“Data centres already account for about one percent of global electricity consumption.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{One-third of the ring around the lightning symbol changes to yellow. The blades of a fan appear around the lightning symbol and start to rotate. Snowflakes start to fall in the background.}
“More than a third of this power is for cooling the electrical components.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{The scene changes to a man wearing a laboratory coat in a date centre with fans overhead. He is using a handheld tablet device. Quickly and one by one, the data servers are replaced with a slightly different design to represent the next-generation servers. They glow with pulsing energy.}
“Traditional air cooling systems are energy intensive and cannot cool powerful next-generation servers.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{The scene returns to the view of the Earth from space, with the sun emerging from behind it and a thermometer in front. The thermometer shows the temperature rising. The image of the Earth transforms into a lightbulb containing two green leaves, representing renewable energy. The sun and thermometer disappear. A landscape of mountains, trees and clouds appears in the background, while six wind turbines and two ground-mounted solar panels appear in the foreground.}
“To help tackle the climate crisis we need new, more sustainable solutions.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{Zooming out, the scene appears to be shown on a computer monitor screen. The image changes to a blank screen with logo for the World Economic Forum (WEF).}
[Text displays]
{World Economic Forum}
{A woman wearing a laboratory coat stood behind a WEF lectern appears on the left-hand side of the computer monitor. Zooming out, theatre-style rows of chairs appear with people sitting facing the monitor. The woman gestures as if presenting. The logo on the monitor is replaced by an icon representing immersion cooling}
[Text displays]
{Immersion cooling}
“The World Economic Forum has recognised immersion cooling as one of the best transformational energy innovations in the last decade.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{Everything except the immersion cooling icon disappears. This becomes larger and shows the server hardware being immersed in a container of cooling fluid.}
“High-density, high-performance server hardware is immersed in a specially designed fluid.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{The immersion cooling icon is replaced by many graphical representations of compounds floating toward the front of the screen. A bubble appears on the end of one of the compounds and displays an icon showing an electrical plug, the sun and a cloud, representing energy.}
“Compared with air cooling, single-phase immersion cooling technology, as an integrated solution, offers up to a forty eight percent energy footprint reduction,…
[Text displays]
{48% reduction}
[Animated sequence continues]
{pan to another bubble showing “CO2” in a cloud with an arrow facing downward.}
“…thirty percent lower carbon dioxide emissions,…”
[Text displays]
{30% lower}
[Animated sequence continues]
{pan to another bubble showing a gauge representing CPU performance.}
“…forty percent faster CPU performance,…”
[Text displays]
{40% faster}
[Animated sequence continues]
{pan to another bubble showing a shrinking grid of squares.}
“…eighty percent less floor space and…”
[Text displays]
{80% less}
[Animated sequence continues]
{pan to another bubble showing a hand holding a $ coin and a downward arrow.}
“…a thirty three percent lower total cost of ownership.”
[Text displays]
{33% lower cost}
[Animated sequence continues]
{The scene changes to a man wearing a laboratory coat and using a handheld tablet device in a data centre, with a city skyline in blue hues visible through the windows in the background. The city skyline changes colour to orange hues and a large sun rises over the city.}
“Immersion cooling is highly reliable with no moving parts and climate independence to work in both hot and humid environments.”
[Animated sequence]
{The scene changes to show the inside of a data centre with a schematic showing data hardware and a cooling system represented by blue and red lines. A circle pops up in the middle of the screen.}
[Text displays]
{Up to 99% recovery}
{Zooming out, a mountain and trees appear in the background. The red line representing rejected heat grows, splits and connects to radiator symbols in front of municipal buildings.}
“Immersion cooling also provides the opportunity to recover up to ninety nine percent of the heat your servers generate as one hundred and thirty degree Fahrenheit water for district heating systems.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{The scene changes to show a man and woman wearing laboratory coats and gesturing to larger-than-life, connected chemical beakers representing gas-to-liquids technology. A gas-to-liquids plant is shown in the background.}
“Shell's gas-to-liquids technology has enabled it to develop a proprietary, dielectric, single-phase immersion cooling fluid made from natural gas.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{This scene is rolled away like a roll of paper to reveal a stylized version of a technical drawing with a liquid droplet in the centre. Icons begin to pop up around it representing lower energy costs and emissions, cooling effect, flow behaviour and thermodynamic properties. Then these icons all disappear inside the drop of liquid. A dollar symbol appears inside the droplet and then shrinks in size. A computer chip appears in the droplet and then is covered in fluid. A pair of hands appear cupped around the droplet as if about to catch it.}
“These fluids are designed to reduce energy costs and emissions through their high cooling efficiency, flow behaviour and excellent thermodynamic properties. They cost less to manufacture than alternative fluorocarbon and intensively engineered fluids, have proven computer component compatibility and are safe and easy to handle.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{This scene is rolled away like a roll of paper to reveal a yellow screen. A circle with text is in the middle with a ring split into three equal sections around it.}
[Text displays]
{Immersion cooled server}
{The topmost section is highlighted in white, and a circle appears connected to it. The new circle contains text and a snowflake inside a droplet.}
[Text displays]
{Immersion cooling fluid}
“Immersion cooling is part of Shell's wider integrated energy solution.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{A red ring appears around the central circle containing text.}
[Text displays]
{Heat reuse}
{The right-hand section of the ring around the circle is highlighted in white, and a circle appears connected to it. The new circle contains text a recycling symbol.}
[Text displays]
{Renewable energy}
{The left-hand section of the ring around the circle is highlighted in white, and a circle appears connected to it. The new circle contains text a cloud with “CO2” written in it.}
[Text displays]
{Carbon credits}
“Shell can also supply renewable energy to reduce your carbon emissions further and offset any residual footprint through carbon credits from nature-based solutions.”
[Animated sequence continues]
{The animation ends and a plain, white screen appears. A URL is typed across the middle. It is replaced by the Shell pecten logo}
[Text displays]
{https://www.shell.com/immersion}
“Ask us how we can help you to create a more sustainable future.”
[Transcript ends]
See how Shell is using immersion cooling
Read the transcript
Read the transcript
Title: Shell_Skybox_video_07_11
Duration: {1:00} minutes
Description:
{Shell has converted its high-performance computing cluster at the Houston Skybox data centre to immersion cooling.}
{Compared with air cooling, immersion cooling offers reduced electricity use, carbon footprint, water consumption, floor space and cost of ownship, with increased processing performance. Shell is an early adopter of this technology and has converted its high-performance computing cluster at the Houston Skybox data centre to immersion cooling.}
[Background music plays]
{Peaceful, uplifting musicwith a fast, repetitive rhythm underneath, fades out towards the end of the video and a short jingle plays, echoing the motif of the music}
[Animated sequence]
{Pale grey background in front of which video of a shimmering ribbon of clear liquid is displayed, along with World Economic Forum logo.}
[Text displays]
{“Immersion cooling is one of the best transformational energy innovation in the last decade.”}
[Animated sequence]
{Text flips and disappears as background transitions to steel blue with water droplets flowing towards the viewer at the left edge of the screen. Text appears alongside icon depicting a leaf connected by a cable to an electrical plug.}
[Text displays]
{Compared with air cooling, single-phase immersion cooling offers up to 48% less electricity use. Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.}
{Video footage}
{The image zooms in and is replaced with video of a cooling tower at the right edge of the screen, with white steam billowing out against a greyish-blue sky background. Text appears alongside an icon depicting a cloud with ‘CO2’ and a downwards arrow.}
[Text displays]
{Up to 30% lower CO2 footprint. Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.}
{Video footage}
{Image is replaced with dark blue background of flowing water with light reflected in upper right quadrant. Text appears alongside an icon depicting dark blue droplets and small yellow circles.}
[Text displays]
{Up to 99% less water consumption. Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.}
[Animated sequence]
{Image is replaced with dark blue background and animation of computer processor surrounded by white, yellow and purple light at right side of screen. Text appears alongside an icon depicting an immersion cooling system.}
[Text displays]
{Up to 40% more processing performance. Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.}
[Animated sequence]
{Camera pans across image of perforated metal sheets. Text appears alongside an icon depicting a broken rectangle.}
[Text displays]
{Up to 80% less floor space. Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.}
[Animated sequence]
{Image is replaced with a dark grey background in front of which video of a shimmering ribbon of clear liquid is displayed. Text appears alongside an icon depicting an electric plug connected to a cable surrounding a dollar symbol.}
[Text displays]
{Up to 33% lower cost of ownership. Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.}
[Animated sequence]
{Slowly zooming in, the image is replaced with picture of cityscape at dusk.}
[Text displays]
{Shell aims to support businesses in their sustainability journey through our integrated energy and efficiency solutions.}
[Animated sequence]
{From the bottom of screen, the image is replaced with an image of a white two-storey building in a flat landscape with a similar building in the background, surrounded by fields and trees under a slightly cloudy sky.}
[Text displays]
{We are a pioneer in deploying new solutions in our own operations.}
{Video footage}
{Zooming out, the image is replaced with speeded-up footage of people removing computing equipment from a data processing centre, relaying the flooring and replacing the equipment in a new formation with immersion cooling.}
[Text displays]
{Most recently, we converted our high-performance computing cluster at Shell’s Houston Skybox data centre to immersion cooling.}
[Animated sequence]
{The image rotates and is replaced with a close-up of the immersion cooling system, which is immediately replaced with an image of the white inside of an immersion cooling tank.}
[Text displays]
{The immersion cooling system has six tanks}
[Animated sequence]
{The image is replaced with a close-up of servers submerged in cooling fluid and then the image zooms out.}
[Text displays]
{and 864 servers submerged in Shell Immersion Cooling Fluid}
{Video footage}
{Zooming out, the image is replaced with footage of a wind farm at dawn.}
[Text displays]
{and draws from 100% renewable power supplied by Shell Energy North America.}
[Animated sequence]
{The image rotates and is replaced with a light grey background in front of which video of a shimmering ribbon of clear liquid is displayed. Text appears alongside an icon depicting an electric plug connected to a cable surrounding a dollar symbol.}
[Text displays]
{Operational September 2023 Shell is an early adopter of immersion cooling technology as we co-innovate with technology leading companies to work towards net zero together.}
[Text displays]
{Find out more at www.shell.com/immersion #PoweringProgress}
{Animated sequence}
{The image zooms in and is replaced with the Shell logo, with contoured ripples on the background radiating from it.}
[Text displays]
{Powering Progress}
Read case study
High-performance computing
Shell Immersion Cooling Fluids enable sustainable data centre upgrade.
What’s new
An industry first
Shell Immersion Cooling Fluids are now certified by Intel for use with 4th Gen and 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors in data centres worldwide.
Working together to lower the carbon footprint of big data
Intel, Submer and Shell are collaborating to advance immersion cooling technology.
Paving the way
Shell IT deploys immersion-cooled HPC cluster within its Houston data center, with help from AMD and Penguin.
Advancing immersion cooling with our partner Asperitas
Delivering an energy efficient HPC cluster upgrade in Amsterdam.
Future of Sustainable Data Centers
Penguin Solutions, NVIDIA, and Shell Case Study.
Featured collaborations
GRC
GRC Welcomes Shell as First Official Member of ElectroSafe Fluid Partner Program for Data Center Immersion Cooling.
Asperitas
Shell successfully provides an infrastructure upgrade for an energy efficient, scalable and future ready High Performance Computing (HPC)cluster in a T-Systems managed Amsterdam datacentre.
Iceotope
Shell is an Iceotope Approved Fluid Vendor, ensuring its fluids meet rigorous standards to provide customers with proven reliability, safety, and optimal performance in liquid cooling.
BAC
Shell fluids are helping BAC deliver future-proof industrial immersion cooling solutions, at any scale. Solving the cooling challenges of modern, power-hungry CPUs and GPUs efficiently.
CoolBlock
Coolblock, together with Shell, proudly delivers next-gen immersion cooling products for energy-efficient, scalable data centers—reducing costs, environmental footprint, and driving high-performance computing.
Submer
Shell has partnered with Submer creating a top-class group of collaborators with extensive reach and resources, working towards more sustainable services.
Disclaimers:
1 Figures based on: Global immersion cooling market in data centres – growth, trends and forecast (2019–2024) report (Mordor Intelligence) and Shell’s internal evaluations. Benefits achieved will vary according to actual site development.
2 Than conventional methods such as coolers, chillers evaporative coolers, fans and bearings.
