Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data

centers using absorption refrigeration
Khosrow Ebrahimi, Gerard F. Jones, Amy S. Fleischer
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA

h i g h l i g h t s

 Absorption refrigeration is powered by data center waste heat.

 Waste heat from 3 to 5 server racks produces cooling for an additional rack.
 An economic analysis shows the payback period can be as short as 45 months.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper addresses the technical and economic issues associated with waste heat recovery in data
Received 4 June 2014 centers through the use of absorption cooling machines. The theoretical possibility of utilizing the heat
Received in revised form 20 October 2014 dissipated by a server, or a number of servers, to power an absorption system, which in turn produces
Accepted 24 October 2014
cooling for other servers in the data center, is investigated. For this purpose, a steady-state thermody-
Available online xxxx
namic model is developed to perform energy balance and exergy analyses for a novel conguration of
an on-chip two-phase cooling system and an absorption refrigeration system. This combination is created
Keywords:
by replacing the condenser in the on-chip cooling circuit with the generator of an absorption refrigeration
Data center
Heat recovery and reuse
cycle. The performance of the developed model in simulating both LiBrwater and waterammonia
Absorption refrigeration absorption cooling systems is examined through verication of the model results against the reference
Thermodynamics data available in the literature. The verication indicates the superiority of LiBrwater absorption system
for data center/server operating conditions. Therefore, a LiBrwater absorption refrigeration system is
modeled in the novel combined heat recovery system. For these systems it is shown that the traditional
denition for the coefcient of performance (COP) is not appropriate to evaluate the performance and, in
its place, introduce a new gure of merit. Through a sensitivity analysis, the effects of server waste heat
quality, server coolant type, solution peak concentration, solution heat exchanger effectiveness, evapora-
tor temperature, and operating pressures on the performance of the novel system are investigated.
Finally, using the thermodynamic model and cost information provided by the absorption refrigeration
industry, an economic analysis is carried out to calculate the payback period when this technology is used
for data center waste heat recovery.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and literature review the worlds total electricity usage is related to data center industry.
In the United States, however, this proportion is a bit higher, with
As a consequence of the ongoing growth in the data center data centers responsible for 1.72.2% of total electricity consump-
industry, coupled with the increasing power density of server com- tion [3]. Considering the annual electricity usage in United States,
ponents, the share of electricity consumption by data centers is which is more than 3800 billion kW h [4], it is seen that more than
expected to grow over the coming years [1]. Industry predictions 75 billion kW h of electricity is consumed annually by data centers.
suggest that the annual increase in data center power demand In a typical data center, around 4050% of electric power supply is
can be as high as 1520% [2]. Statistics indicate that 1.11.5% of consumed by IT equipment; 3040% is consumed by cooling
system and the rest is consumed by other facilities such as power
conversion and distribution units, and lighting [57]. Almost all the
Corresponding author at: 800 Lancaster Avenue, Department of Mechanical energy consumed by the IT equipment is converted to waste
Engineering, Villanova, PA 19085, USA. Tel.: +1 610 519 4996.
heat. Therefore, in the United States alone, 32.2 billion kW h of
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.S. Fleischer).

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0306-2619/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
eration. Appl Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.067
2 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

electricity is turned to waste heat annually through data centers 35.2 kW was achievable. The corresponding Coefcient of Perfor-
operation and almost the same amount of energy is required to mance (COP) at the design point was 0.7. The minimum quality
operate data centers cooling system and remove that waste heat and quantity of the supply heat required for the system operation
from server components. From the above statistics, it is clear that were 14.1 kW and 70 C. The cooling capacity and COP correspond-
capturing and reusing the servers dissipated energy can result in ing to the minimum operation conditions were 8.8 kW and 0.62,
huge energy savings through not only repurposing the dissipated respectively. The maximum COP of the unit was 0.86 with a
heat but also eliminating or reducing the need for cooling and heat generator temperature of 80 C and a resultant cooling capacity
removal systems. The energy savings resulting from data center of 25 kW.
waste heat recovery can reduce not only the depletion rate of fossil Other research studies have focused on micro-scale systems in
fuels reservoirs but also the emission rate of carbon dioxide and which miniature AR systems are designed to directly cool a single
other contaminant gases. microprocessor using the energy dissipated by the same micropro-
The low quality (temperature) of the dissipated energy is the cessor. Kim et al. [10] designed and analyzed a micro-scale LiBr
most challenging issue in data center waste heat recovery. It Water AR unit. In their design, a hydrophobic membrane was used
restricts the number of heat recovery technology options that to place the generator and condenser micro-channel arrays in inti-
can be used for this purpose. In a previous study [1], we reviewed mate contact with each other. The membrane acted as a common
all the currently available and developmental low-grade waste interface between the generator and the condenser to separate
heat recovery techniques along with their operational require- the water vapor from LiBr solution. Depending on the micropro-
ments in order to assess their suitability and effectiveness for data cessor heating load, the evaporator temperature could vary
center applications. Based on a comparison between data centers between 25 C (corresponded to 100 W heat load) and 50 C (corre-
operational thermodynamic conditions and the operational sponded to 1000 W heat load), while the temperature of the gener-
requirements of the reviewed techniques, absorption refrigeration ator was xed at 90 C. The COP of the system for a heat load of
(AR) and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) were identied as the most 100 W was 0.74. Kim et al. [11] replaced the LiBr solution in their
promising technologies for data center waste heat reuse [1]. Since miniature AR design with an ionic liquid (IL) to lower the toxicity
AR systems can operate with generator temperatures as low as of the system and to eliminate the risk of crystallization that occurs
7090 C, they are compatible with the waste heat temperatures with LiBr/Water AR systems. Through this study, IL and ve HFC
from liquid-cooled and two phase cooled data centers [1]. How- refrigerants were evaluated as the system working uid pairs.
ever, this technology is not suitable for waste heat from air cooled The effects of generator and absorber temperatures, waste-heat
data centers unless an additional heat booster is employed [1]. quality, and system design on the performance of miniaturized
In the standard vapor compression refrigeration systems used AR/heat pump were investigated. The study showed that for an
in data center Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units, a evaporator temperature of 41 C, the maximum COP is 0.35 with
considerable amount of power is consumed by the compressor. an evaporator cooling capability of 36 W and a generator temper-
Since liquids have much lower specic volumes than vapors, ature range of 50110 C. The addition of a solution heat exchanger
replacing the vapor compression system with an AR system, in increased the COP to 0.8. Kim et al. [12] extended their theoretical
which a liquid solution of absorbent uid and refrigerant is used analysis to explore and evaluate the effect of using 14 different
as the cycle working uid, can result in considerable power mixtures of refrigerants and imidazolium-based ILs as the working
savings. The application of AR to replace or supplement a CRAC uid pairs on the performance of the AR system. The saturation
not only reduces the power necessary to run the system, but also temperatures at the evaporator and condenser were set at 25 C
has the benet of using the data center waste heat as the AR gen- and 50 C, respectively, with a power dissipation of 100 W. The
erator heat source. Using data center waste heat in AR systems highest COP of 0.9 was achieved with a combination of water as
leads to direct reduction of the load on data center CRAC systems, the refrigerant and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrauorobo-
through two ways: rst by removing the servers heat and using rate as the absorbent uid at a generator temperature of 70 C.
that to operate the AR units and second by generating chilled water Chiriac and Chiriac [13,14] designed and developed a miniatur-
which can be used for cooling additional servers, which is of signif- ized ammoniawater AR system for smaller scale power electron-
icant economic benet to most data center operators. Another ics. However, the absorber was powered by an electric heater and
important benet of this technology is the fact that there are no not by waste heat. In the original system [13], a gravity-based
issues with site co-location and the technology can be retrot into thermosyphon was used to circulate the binary solution, but was
existing data centers if space permits [1]. replaced with a mini-pump in the next design [14]. This improve-
During the past decade, the feasibility of using AR systems for ment increased the COP of the system from 0.4 to 0.7. The system
data center or server waste heat recovery has been considered by was designed for heat removal capacity of 100 W and the temper-
a few researchers. We performed a comprehensive review of those atures at the generator, condenser and evaporator were set at
research works in our previous study [1], however, an updated 125 C, 40 C and 10 C, respectively. Table 1 provides a short
summary of that review is presented in this paper. Haywood summary of research in which the application of AR in data
et al. [8,9] focused on utilizing data center dissipated heat to oper- center/server/micro-processor dissipated heat removal and
ate a 10-ton single-effect lithium bromidewater AR chiller by recovery is investigated.
transferring the thermal energy from the highest power compo-
nents on a server blade to the generator of the AR chiller. Any
excess thermal energy was stored for use as a booster during 2. Objectives and conceptual framework
non-peak operating conditions. Through this approach the CRAC
load was reduced by using part of the waste heat that otherwise This study addresses the technical and economic issues associ-
would be cooled by the CRAC unit to run the AR unit, and also ated with integration of AR technology to a data center thermal
through cooling produced by AR chiller, which resulted in further management system. We develop steady-state thermodynamic
reduction in the CRAC load. The AR was able to operate using waste models to investigate the theoretical feasibility of using the heat
heat with temperature range of 7095 C and thus was consistent energy dissipated by a server or a number of servers in running
with liquid or two phase cooled data centers. At the design point of an AR system and producing cooling for other server or servers
the system where the quality and quantity of the supply heat were in the same center. Our main objective in this paper is to perform
88 C and 50.2 kW, respectively, the maximum cooling load of a thermo-economic analysis for data center waste heat recovery by

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
eration. Appl Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.067
 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx 3

Table 1
The specications of AR units studied for data center/server/microprocessor heat removal and recovery.

Investigator(s) AR type/scale Operating conditions Cooling capacity and COP

Haywood Single effect LiBrwater/macroscale  Heat input temperature range: 7095 C  Cooling capacity and COP under
et al. [8,9]  Maximum COP is achieved when the quality and quantity of maximum COP conditions: 25 kW
heat input are: 80 C and 29 kW and 0.86
 Heat input quality and quantity at design point: 88 C and  Cooling capacity and COP at design
50.2 kW point: 35.2 kW and 0.7
 Minimum requirements for the heat input quality and  Cooling capacity and COP under min-
quantity: 70 C and 14.1 kW imum conditions: 8.8 kW and 0.62
Kim et al. [10] Single effect LiBrwater/microscale  Heat loads: 100 W and 1000 W  COP of the system for 100 W heat
 Heat input temperature: 90 C load: 0.74
Kim et al. [11] Single-effect/microscale:  Heat load: 100 W  The highest COP is 0.9
imidazolium-based ionic liquid (IL)  The highest COP is achieved with a combination of water as
as absorbent and water as refrigerant the refrigerant and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrauo-
roborateas the absorbent uid at a generator temperature of
70 C
Kim et al. [12] Single-effect/microscale: Ionic liquid  Heat load: 100 W  Maximum COP is 0.35
(IL) as absorbent and HFC as  Heat input temperature:  Addition of a solution heat exchan-
refrigerant  50110 C ger can increase the COP to 0.8
Chiriac and Ammoniawater/microscale  Heat removal capacity: 100 W  THE COP of the system when gravity-
Chiriac  Generator temperature: 125 C based thermosyphon is used to cir-
[13,14] culate the binary solution is 0.4
 The COP of system, when mini-pump
is used to circulate the binary
solution is 0.7

developing a novel waste heat recovery system combined of a 3.1.1. Simulation of LiBrwater AR
simplied version of an on-chip two-phase cooling system [15] Fig. 1 shows a schematic view of the components and state
and an AR unit. These two systems are integrated through the points in a single-effect LiBrwater AR cycle. The system required
replacement of the condenser in the on-chip two phase cooling inputs are waste heat to the generator and t power to the pump.
system with the generator of the AR unit. The system output is the cooling load produced at the evaporator.
Our starting point is the creation of accurate thermodynamic The low pressure vapor refrigerant enters the absorber (state point
models to simulate LiBrwater and waterAmmonia AR systems, 10) where, through an exothermic process, the refrigerant is
which are veried against the reference data available in the litera- absorbed into a carrier liquid, which is called the absorbent. For
ture. The veried models can then be used to simulate data center this case, the refrigerant is water and the absorbent is LiBr. Then,
operating conditions to determine whether LiBrwater or water the strong liquid LiBrwater solution exiting the absorber (state
Ammonia shows better performance under data center operation 1) is pumped to a higher pressure and enters the solution heat
conditions. It will be shown that LiBrwater is a more efcient sys- exchanger (state 2). Recall that energy costs for pumping a liquid
tem for data center/server operating conditions. Thus the novel heat are considerably smaller than compressing a vapor as it is needed
recovery conguration is developed by replacing the condenser in in a conventional vapor compression cycle. By passing through the
the recently introduced on-chip two phase cooling system [15] with solution heat exchanger, the strong solution is preheated and then
the generator of a single effect LiBrwater AR machine. Then, the enters the generator (state 3). Through an endothermic process,
models are expanded to perform steady-state energy and exergy the refrigerant is separated from the absorbent. The exiting refrig-
analysis for the novel conguration. We explain why the traditional erant vapor (state 7) continues on to the condenser while the now
denition for the coefcient of performance (COP) is not appropri- weak liquid solution in the generator passes through an expansion
ate in evaluating the performance of the novel combined system
and, in its place, introduce a new gure of merit. Through a paramet-
ric analysis, the effect of server waste heat quality, server coolant
type, solution peak concentration, solution heat exchanger effec-
tiveness, evaporator temperature, and operating pressures on the
performance of the novel system is investigated. Through the para-
metric study, the requirements for the specications of AR chiller
and server operating condition for achieving highest coefcient of
performance are determined.
Finally, using the thermodynamic model and cost information
provided by the AR industry, an economic analysis is carried out
to calculate the return of investment (ROI) and payback period
when this technology is used for data center waste heat recovery.

3. Thermodynamic analysis

3.1. Thermodynamic modeling of AR systems

Thermodynamic models are developed to perform an energy

balance analysis for the two most conventional AR systems;
namely, LiBrwater and waterAmmonia. Fig. 1. Schematic view of a single-effect AR system.

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
eration. Appl Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.067
4 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

valve and returns to the absorber (states 4, 5 and 6). The loop of the 3. Knowing the pressure and temperature of water at the outlet of
absorber, pump, generator and expansion valve are together generator (state 7), condenser (state 8) and evaporator (state
referred to as a chemical compressor. 10), the enthalpy is calculated through the REFPROP subroutine.
In order to develop our thermodynamic model for this system, This subroutine was developed by the National Institute of
the governing equations for the conservation of mass and energy Standards and Technology (NIST) and more information in this
must be applied to each component as well as to the whole system. regard can be found in [18].
The general forms of these equations are 4. Considering assumptions (1), (3) and (4), the energy equation
for the expansion valve can be simplied as
dm X X
_ 
m _
m 1
dt in out h8 h9 6

dE X X where h (J/kg) is the enthalpy of refrigerant (water).

Q_  W
_ _ 
mh _
mh 2 Therefore, knowing the enthalpy of water at the inlet of the
dt in out
valve (state 8) from the previous step, the enthalpy of water exiting
The following assumptions are made in developing the thermo- the valve can be determined (state 9).
dynamic model and solving the governing equations. Some of these
assumptions are also used in similar studies in the literature 5. Knowing the pressure and enthalpy of water, the temperature
[1621]. at the outlet of valve (state point 9) can be found through
REFPROP.
1. The system is steady state. 6. Knowing the solution temperature and concentration, the
2. The temperature variations in the evaporator, condenser, enthalpy of solution at the outlet of the absorber (state 1) and
absorbent, and generator are negligible. generator (state 4) through the standard formulations devel-
3. The solution and refrigerant expansion valves are adiabatic. oped by Kaita [19].
4. Pressure drop and heat transfer to the surroundings in all com-
ponents and connecting tubes are negligible. HT;X A0 A1 XT 0:5B0 B1 XT 2 D0 D1 X D2 X 2 D3 X 3
5. The refrigerant at the states 8 (outlet of condenser) and 9 7
(outlet of evaporator) are saturated liquid and saturated vapor,
respectively. where H (kJ/kg) is the enthalpy of solution, T (C) is the temperature
6. Heat transfer to the evaporator comes from the server cooling (20 6 T 6 210 C), X (wt.%) is the absorbent concentration (40 6 X
circuit. 6 65 wt.%), A0 = 3.462023, A1 = 2.679895E2, B0 = 1.3499E3,
B1 = 6.55E6, D0 = 162.81, D1 = 6.0418, D2 = 4.5348E3,
The required input data to the model are as follows: D3 = 1.2053E3.

 The temperature at the absorber, generator, condenser, and 7. Considering assumptions (1), (2), (4) and (5) and knowing the
evaporator. heat transfer rate (cooling capacity) at the evaporator and
 The effectiveness of the solution heat exchanger. the refrigerant properties before and after this component, the
 The heat transfer rate at evaporator (the cooling capacity of the mass ow rate is calculated through an energy balance
system). Q_ e
_r
m 8
h10  h9
Considering the input variables and implementing the assump- where Q_ e (kW) is the heat transfer rate at the evaporator and m
_r
tions, the steady state thermodynamic model consists of the fol- (kg/s) is the refrigerant mass ow rate.
lowing steps:
8. Knowing the refrigerant mass ow rate from the previous step
1. Knowing the temperatures at condenser and evaporator, the and considering the fact that the mass ow rate of LiBr in both
corresponding pressures are calculated through the use of the weak and strong solution streams are the same (m _ 1X1 m_ 6 X 6 ),
following empirical equation developed by Sun [16]. knowing the concentration of LiBr in the weak and strong solu-
  tions (from step 2) and taking assumption (1) into account, the
3892:7
p exp 9:48654 3 weak and strong solution mass ow rates can be found through
42:6776  T a mass balance at the absorber
where p(MPa) is pressure and T(K) is temperature. m_ r X1
_6
m 9
X6  X1
2. Knowing the temperatures at absorber, evaporator, generator,
and condenser the concentration of LiBr in the strong and weak m_ r X6
solutions is calculated using equations presented in Lansing _1
m 10
X6  X1
[17].
In the above equations m _ 6 (kg/s) and m_ 1 (kg/s) denote mass
LiBr concentration in strong solution: ow rates for week and strong solutions, respectively.
49:04 1:125T 1  T 10
X1 X2 X3 4 9. Knowing the LiBr concentration in the strong solution from step
134:65 0:47T 1
2 and the temperature of absorber, the density of strong solu-
LiBr concentration in weak solution: tion exiting the absorber (state 1) is calculated using the follow-
ing equation [20]
49:04 1:125T 4  T 8
X4 X5 X6 5
134:65 0:47T 4
q 1145:36 470:84X 1374:79X 2  0:333393 0:571749XT
In Eqs. (4) and (5), X (kg LiBr/kg solution) denotes absorbent
concentration and T (C) temperature. 11

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 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx 5

Table 2
Input data from the reference models.

Variable/parameter Symbol (unit) Data series #1 Rubio-Maya et al. [21] Data series #2 Aphornratana and Eames [22]
Evaporator cooling load Q_ e (kW) 201.29 Free to choose
Generator temperature Tg (C) 84.8 90
Condenser temperature Tc (C) 39.8 35
Evaporator temperature Te (C) 8.6 5
Absorber temperature Ta (C) 35.5 35
Solution heat exchanger effectiveness e (%) 70.7 60

where q (kg/m3) is the solution density, T(K) is the solution temper- 15. Knowing the enthalpy at all state points of the cycle the heat
ature, and X (kg LiBr/ kg solution) is the concentration of absorbent transfer rate at absorber, generator and condenser can be
in the solution. calculated through the application of energy balance for
each component:
10. Knowing the pressures (from step 1), mass ow rate of
strong solution (from step 8), and density of strong solution Absorber Q_ a m
_ r h10 m
_ 6 h6  m
_ 1 h1 19
(from step 9), the pump work is calculated by [22]
Generator Q_ g m
_ r h7 m
_ 6 h4  m
_ 1 h3 20
_P _ 1 p2  p1
m
W 12
q1 Condenser Q_ c m
_ r h7  h8 21

11. In order to nd the temperature values of the strong solution

entering the generator (state 3) and weak solution entering 16. Calculation of COP
the absorber, the governing energy equation for the solution Q_ e
heat exchanger is solved. For this purpose, the heat capacity COP 22
Q_ g
of strong and weak solution streams at the inlet of solution
heat exchanger (states 2, 4) are calculated using [23]. In order to verify the model, the model is run using reference
2
data from the open literature in which the generator temperature
cp 0:0976X  37:512X 3825:4 13 is close to that of the waste heat temperature in liquid-cooled or
two phase cooled data centers. Table 2 shows the values of input
where cp (J/kgK) is the specic heat of solution and X (wt.%) is the data from two references used for the model verication [21,22].
concentration of absorbent in the solution. Table 3 shows a comparison between our model and reference
models regarding the methods applied for the calculation of refrig-
12. Knowing the solution mass ow rates (from step 8) and the erant and solution properties. Tables 4 and 5 show the validation
heat capacities of the weak and strong solution streams results. As can be seen from Table 4, the deviation between our
(from step 11), the heat capacity rates of weak and solution model results and those of Rubio-Maya et al. [21] is less than
streams are calculated 5.5%. The deviations can be attributed to the models differences
_ p
C mc 14 in calculating refrigerant properties as well as density and specic
heat of the solution. In the second verication indicated in Table 5,
Knowing the solution heat exchanger effectiveness (e) and the ratio of the rate of energy changes in each component to the
depending on which solution stream has smaller heat capacity rate of energy change at the generator is considered as the basis
rate, one of the two temperatures (T3 and T5) is calculated. If for comparison between the two models. The comparison shows
m_ 4 cp4 < m
_ 2 cp2 , T5 is calculated by
excellent agreement between our model and that of Aphornratana
and Eames [22] in calculating heat transfer rates at the generator,
T 5 T 4  eT 4  T 2 15
absorber, condenser, and evaporator (deviations less than 1%).

_ 1 cp1 < m
If m _ 4 cp4 T3 is calculated by
3.1.2. Simulation of waterammonia AR
In contrast to LiBrwater AR systems in which water works as
T 3 T 2 eT 4  T 2 16
the cycle refrigerant, in waterammonia systems, water plays the
role of absorbent. These cycles also require a rectication column
Following the calculation of T5 or T3, the enthalpy at states 3 or due to the existence of water in the ammonia vapor leaving the
5 is calculated using Eq. (7). generator (state 8 in Fig. 2), which adversely affects the perfor-
mance of the system. The rectier removes water from the exiting
13. The only remaining enthalpy not calculated from the previ- vapor [26]. Passing through the rectier, a portion of the heat of the
ous steps is determined by the energy balance at the solu- vapor exiting the generator is removed by the lower-temperature,
tion heat exchanger waterammonia solution stream leaving the absorber and pumped
to the high-side pressure (process 12 in Fig. 2). Therefore the
_ 4 h4 m
m _ 2 h2 m
_ 3 h3 m
_ 5 h5 17 majority of water content in the vapor exiting the generator is con-
densed to liquid and drips back to the generator (state 9 in Fig. 2).
14. Considering assumptions 1, 3, and 4 the enthalpy of weak However, there still exists some water in the liquid ammonia exit-
solution at the outlet of solution valve (state 6) is deter- ing the condenser (state 11) and when its pressure falls by passing
mined by an energy balance through the expansion valve, the liquid ashes to vapor which is
almost pure ammonia. Therefore, the liquid has a higher fraction
h6 h5 18 of water after than before the expansion valve. As the mixture of

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
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6 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

Table 3
Comparison between our model and reference models regarding the methods applied for the calculation of refrigerant and solution properties.

Type of property Present study Rubio-Maya et al. [21] Aphornratana and Eames [22]
Pressures of the system Sun [16] Sun [16] Not specied
Refrigerant (water) properties REFPROP [18] Lansing [17] Irvine and Liley [24]
Absorbent (LiBr) concentration Lansing [17] Lansing [17] Not specied
Solution (LiBrwater) properties Density from Lee et al. [20], specic heat from Kaita [19] Patterson and Perez-Blanco [25]
ASHRAE handbook [23], rest of properties from Kaita [19]

Table 4
Verication of our model by comparing our results with those of Rubio-Maya et al.
[21]. The input data are the same as used by Rubio-Maya et al. [21] (see Table 2).

Variable MATLAB Rubio-Maya Deviation

Model-present et al. [21] (%)
study
Generator heat ow rate (kW) 246.207 259.55 5.1
Condenser heat ow rate (kW) 206.155 213.37 3.4
Absorber heat ow rate (kW) 241.345 247.47 2.5
Coefcient of Performance 0.8175 0.7755 5.4

liquid and vapor enters the evaporator, more liquid evaporates

progressively causing the water content in the remaining liquid
to increase. Since the evaporator pressure is constant, an increase
of water content in the remaining liquid creates an increase in
temperature [26,27] and the waterammonia leaves the evapora-
tor at a higher temperature than when it enters. Stoecker and Reed Fig. 2. Schematic of rened waterammonia AR system.
[26] found a 56 C temperature increase through the evaporator.
As the vapor throughout the evaporator is almost all ammonia, The required input parameters for the running the computer
in order to remove water from the evaporator, some liquid water model are as follows:
must leave the evaporator [26,27]. However, this has a small effect
and we did not include it in our model.  The temperature of the absorber, generator, and condenser.
In accordance with the method introduced by Stoecker and  The temperature at the inlet of evaporator and at the outlet of
Reed [26], the following assumptions are taken into account to rectier.
develop the model for the thermodynamic simulation of a simple,  The mass ow rate of the waterammonia solution leaving the
single-effect, waterammonia AR (as shown in Fig. 2). absorber.
 The heat transfer coefcient (UA) of the solution heat
1. The system works in steady-state conditions. exchanger.
2. The temperature variations throughout the condenser, absor-
bent and generator are negligible. The thermodynamic analysis and procedure is based on that of
3. The exit temperature in the evaporator is 5.5 C higher than at Patek and Klomfar [28] to determine the thermodynamic proper-
the inlet. ties of waterammonia solution. Starting from the state 10 (at
4. The solution and refrigerant expansion valves are adiabatic. the outlet of rectier in Fig. 2), the high-side pressure is calculated
5. Pressure drop and heat loss in all components and connecting through an iterative technique. Making an initial guess for the
tubes are negligible. pressure at the state 10, and knowing the temperature at the same
6. The high and low pressures of the system are the equilibrium state point, which is equal to the generator temperature, the molar
pressures corresponding to the temperature and concentration fraction of ammonia in the vapor exiting the generator is calcu-
of the waterammonia solution in the condenser and evapora- lated from equilibrium equation [28].
tor, respectively.
y yT; p 22
7. The cooling capacity produced in the evaporator is used to
remove the heat from the working uid in the server cooling where y is the ammonia molar fraction in vapor solution, T (K) is the
circuit. temperature and p (MPa) is the pressure. Since the mass ow and

Table 5
Verication of model by comparing results with those of Aphornratana and Eames [22]. The input data are the same as used by Aphornratana and Eames [22] (see Table 2).

Variable MATLAB Model-present study Aphornratana and Eames [22] Deviation (%)
Generator heat input (%) 100 100 0
Solution pump work (%) 0.0001898 0.001 81% (the large deviation is because the
difference of two very small values are
divided by a very small value)
Evaporator heat input (%) 75.561 75.865 0.4
Absorber heat reject (%) 95.212 94.885 0.3
Condenser heat reject (%) 80.349 80.981 0.7
Solution heat exchanger load (%) 10.443 11.785 11.3

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 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx 7

concentration of the refrigerant before and after the condenser is With the high and low-side pressures known and knowing the
constant, the ammonia fraction in the liquid stream exiting the con- temperatures of absorber and generator, as well as the tempera-
denser at state 11 will be the same as ammonia fraction in the vapor ture at the outlet of rectier, the ammonia molar fraction and
stream after rectier at state 10. Then, knowing the temperature enthalpy of solution at the state 1 (liquid solution exiting the
and ammonia fraction at state 11, the high-side pressure is calcu- absorber), 8 (vapor refrigerant exiting the generator), 9 (dripped
lated through the following equilibrium equation [28] liquid exiting the rectier and returning to the generator), and 5
(the returning solution from generator to the absorber) are calcu-
p pT; x 23
lated using Eqs. (22), (22)(25).
where x is the ammonia molar fraction of the liquid solution. Using In order to determine the total enthalpy at the 13 (after the
the updated pressure from Eq. (23), another iteration is performed evaporator), we need to calculate the enthalpy of liquid and vapor
and the ammonia fraction at state 10 is recalculated through Eq. solutions at this state as well as the mass ow rates of purge liquid
(22). The recalculated ammonia fraction at state 10 is then used and vapor leaving the evaporator. From conservation of mass for
for updating the calculations at state 11 and nding a new value ammonia between the states 10 and 13 it can be concluded that
for the high-side pressure through Eq. (23). This loop of calculations
x13 ym;10 30
is repeated until the prediction for high-side pressure converges.
A similar iterative technique is used in the next step for the cal- where x is the total ammonia mass fraction and ym is the ammonia
culation of the low-side pressure. As explained above, when the mass fraction in the vapor solution. Knowing the value of y at the
condenser exiting liquid solution passes through the expansion state 10, ym,10 can be determined through the following equation
valve some of the liquid solution ashes to vapor. Therefore, there
y10 M Ammonia
is a mixture of liquid and vapor at state 12. Making an initial guess ym;10 31
for the pressure at the inlet of evaporator (state 12), and knowing
y10 MAmmonia 1  y10 M Water
the temperature at this state, which is equal to the evaporator inlet Knowing the low-side pressure and assuming the temperature
temperature, the molar fractions of ammonia in the vapor and at the outlet of evaporator is 5.5 C higher than at the inlet, the
liquid solution at the inlet of evaporator is calculated through ammonia molar fractions in the liquid and vapor leaving the evap-
Eqs. (22) and (23). Following the calculation of ammonia molar orator can be found through Eqs. (22) and (23). Subsequently, the
fractions, the enthalpies of liquid and vapor solutions at state 12 ammonia mass fractions at the state-point 13 can be calculated in a
are determined using [28]: similar fashion presented in Eqs. (27) and (31). Then, the enthal-
hL hL T; x 24 pies of liquid and vapor phases at state 13 are determined using
Eqs. (24) and (25). The mass ow rate of ammonia at this state
hG hG T; y 25 can be calculated using either the total ammonia mass fraction
(x13) or the ammonia mass fractions in the liquid and vapor
where hL (kJ/kg) and hG (kJ/kg) represent the enthalpy of liquid and streams. Since these results will be the same, we develop the fol-
vapor solutions, respectively. Since the refrigerant expansion valve lowing equation
is adiabatic, the enthalpy across this valve is unchanged, and there-
fore h11 = h12. This equality is used to calculate the mass fraction of
x13 wpl xm;13 1  wpl ym;13 32
liquid solution at the state 12. Knowing that the solution at the state where wpl is the mass ow rate ratio of the purge liquid leaving the
11 (before passing through the valve) is completely liquid, the evaporator:
enthalpy of the solution at this state is easily calculated using Eq. m_ pl
(24). Then, considering the equality of enthalpies and mass-ow wpl 33
_ total
m
rates across the valve, the mass fraction of liquid solution (fL) at
the state 12 is calculated [26]: The total enthalpy at the state 13 is calculated next

h11  hG;12 h13 wpl hL;13 1  wpl hG;13 34

fL 26
hL;12  hG;12 In order to calculate the mass ow rate at different states of the
Knowing fL at the state 12 and neglecting the small fraction of system, we need to apply mass conservation for the solution and
water in the vapor solution at the same state, a new value for ammonia, Eqs. (35) and (36) respectively, and solve the two equa-
the molar fraction of ammonia in the liquid solution at state 12 tions simultaneously
X X
is calculated through Eqs. (27)(29) by a mass balance for water m_ m_ 35
between the states 11 and 12. in out

x11 M Ammonia X X
xm;11 27 m_x m_x 36
x11 M Ammonia 1  x11 M Water in out

xm;11  1 For the rectier mass conservation is written as

xm;12 1 28
fL _8m
m _ 9m
_ 10 37

xm;12 MWater _ 8 ym;8 m

m _ 9 xm;9 m
_ 10 ym;10 38
x12 29
M Ammonia  xm;12 MAmmonia  MWater
Knowing the values of x at state 9 and y at states 8 and 10, and
where xm denotes the mass fraction of Ammonia in the liquid solu- _ 8 is known, Eqs. (37) and (38) are solved for m
assuming m _ 9 and m
_ 10
tion and M is the molar mass (kg/kmol). With the known tempera- !
ture and molar fraction of Ammonia in the liquid solution at state ym;8  ym;10
_9
m m_8 39
12, the low-side pressure is recalculated using Eq. (23). The new xm;9  ym;10
estimate for the low-side pressure is then used in repeating the
!
thermodynamic calculations for state 12 as explained above. This ym;8  xm;9
loop of calculations is continued until the value for the low-side _ 10
m _8
m 40
ym;10  xm;9
pressure converges.

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8 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

In order to nd mass ow rates at states 4 and 5 in terms of Eq. (24). Knowing the enthalpy values at states 3, 5, and 6, the
mass ow rate at state 8, conservation of mass is applied around enthalpy at state 4 is calculated by energy balance on the solution
the generator for both the solution and ammonia streams heat exchanger
_ 9m
m _4m
_ 5m
_8 41 _ 3 h3 m
m _ 5 h5  m
_ 6 h6
h4 50
m_4
m _ 4 x4 m
_ 9 xm;9 m _ 5 xm;5 m
_ 8 ym;8 42 Finally, the heat transfer rates at the evaporator and the gener-
ator are calculated from Eqs. (51) and (52).
where x4 xm;1 . Replacing m _ 9 and m
_ 10 in Eqs. (41) and (42) with
the right hand side of Eqs. (39) and (40) and solving Eqs. (41) and Q_ e m
_ 12 h13  h12 51
_ 4 and m
(42) for m _ 5 will result in
" ! # Q_ g m
_ 8 h8 m
_ 5 h5  m
_ 4 h4 52
ym;8  xm;5 ym;8  ym;10 xm;9  xm;5
_4
m  m_8 43
xm;1  xm;5 xm;9  ym;10 xm;1  xm;5 The COP is calculated using Eq. (22).
Fig. 3 shows a comparison of the MATLAB model developed
" ! # through the above steps to results in the archival literature [26].
ym;8  xm;1 ym;8  ym;10 xm;1  xm;9
_5
m  m_8 44 As we see, for the temperatures below 105 C there is an excellent
xm;1  xm;5 xm;9  ym;10 xm;1  xm;5 agreement between the two models, however, for the higher tem-
perature the deviation between two models is increased to as high
Since the mass ow rate through pump, m _ 4 , is known m
_ 8 can be
as 11%. This can be attributed to the difference between the data
easily calculated using Eq. (43) and subsequently all the mass ow
sets used for the thermodynamic properties.
rates are calculated through Eqs. (39), (40) and (44). In order to cal-
culate the temperature at state 3, we apply an energy balance
3.1.3. Superiority of LiBrwater AR
around rectier
Fig. 4 shows a comparison of COP values for single-effect LiBr
_ 8 h8 m
m _ 2 h2  m
_ 2 h3  m
_ 9 h9  m
_ 10 h10 0 45 water and waterAmmonia AR cycles. The high and low pressures
for waterAmmonia AR cycle are 1.1 and 0.3 MPa, respectively
In this, equation, enthalpies at states 8 and 9 have been calcu-
while the corresponding values for LiBrwater are 4.8  103and
lated from the above. Knowing the temperature and molar fraction
9  104MPa. It can be seen that for the range of data center waste
of Ammonia at state 10, the enthalpy at this state can be found
heat temperatures (temperatures less than 80 C), the COP of LiBr
through Eq. (25). With pump work is negligible, we see that
water AR cycle is considerably higher than waterAmmonia (up to
h2 = h1, where h1 is known from ae previous step. Since the mass
14% at 65 C). The higher COP under data center operating condi-
ow rates are also known from a previous step, the only unknown
tions is not the only advantage of LiBrwater over waterAmmonia
in Eq. (45), h3, is calculated. The temperature at state 3 can now
AR systems. The other advantages are a simpler system (as LiBr
calculated by Eq. (24).
water does not need the rectication column, while this compo-
The temperature at states 4 and 6 are calculated using e-NTU
nent is necessary for the waterAmmonia) and less pump work
method [29]. The NTU is from
(due to operation at very low pressures). On the other hand, the
UA most challenging issue is the risk of crystallization, which imposes
NTU 46
C min an upper limit on the LiBr concentration (65%). However, because
of the better performance of LiBrwater AR systems for data center
_ p ) for the
where Cmin is the smaller of the two heat capacity rates (mc
operating conditions, this type of AR system is selected for integra-
cold and hot streams entering the heat exchanger at states 3 and 5
tion into the data center design, and the system is designed to
(see Fig. 2). Following the calculation of NTU, the effectiveness for
avoid the risk of crystallization.
the solution heat exchanger (counter-ow type) is
Fig. 4 also shows that for both systems, the COP decreases at
1  expNTU1  C r  higher generator temperatures. Our hypothesis for this behavior
for C r < 1 : e 47a is as follows. When operating at higher generator temperatures,
1  C r expNTU1  C r 
the vapor exiting the generator and entering the condenser is at
NTU elevated temperatures and as such requires a larger heat transfer
for C r 1 : e 47b surface at the condenser in order to be completely turned into a
1 NTU
saturated liquid at the condenser exit. As the heat transfer surface
where Cr is the heat capacity ratio is xed, therefore instead of completely condensing, there may be

C min
Cr 48
C max
where Cmin is as above and Cmax is the maximum of the two heat
capacity rate for the cold and hot streams entering the heat exchan-
ger at states 3 and 5 (see Fig. 2). After the calculation of effective-
ness, the unknown temperatures T4 and T6 are calculated by solving
_ 3 cp;3 T 4  T 3
m
e 49a
C min T 5  T 3

_ 5 cp;5 T 5  T 6
m
e 49b
C min T 5  T 3
After nding the temperature at state 6 and assuming that the Fig. 3. Verication of the MATLAB model developed in this study for the steady-
solution at this state is completely liquid phase [26] (which state thermodynamic simulation of the rened waterammonia AR system (see
resulted in x6 = x5), the enthalpy at this state is calculated using Fig. 2) by comparing results with those of Stoecker and Reed [26].

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 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx 9

Table 7
Verication of our model expanded for exergy analysis through the comparison of our
results with those of Rubio-Maya et al. [21]. The input data are the same as used by
Rubio-Maya et al. [21] (see Table 2).

System DE (kW) MATLAB DE (kW) Rubio- Deviation (%)

component Model-present Study Maya et al. [21] (absolute value)
Evaporator 6.167 8.205 24.8
Condenser 11.748 5.519 112.8
Generator 3.093 10.544 70.6
Absorber 12.530 12.041 4.1
Solution heat 2.258 2.862 21.1
exchanger
Total 35.798 39.171 8.6

Tables 6 and 7 show the verifying comparisons. We see that in

calculating the total exergy destruction the deviation between our
model and Rubio-Maya et al. [21] is less than half of the corre-
sponding deviation between our model and that of Aphornratana
and Eames [22]. It can be justied due to greater similarity
between our and Rubio-Maya et al. [21] models in calculation of
Fig. 4. A typical comparison between the COP values of single-effect LiBrwater pressures, concentrations, and thermodynamic properties as indi-
and ammoniawater AR systems. cated in Tables 3 and 6.
Table 7 indicates that although the deviation between our
vapor in the stream exiting the condenser, which in turn results in model and Rubio-Maya in calculating the total exergy destruction
less heat transfer at the evaporator. is less than 10%, there are large deviations in some components,
especially condenser (113%) and generator (71%). We saw an
3.1.4. Expansion of the model for exergy analysis and validation excellent match between our model and Rubio-Maya et al. [21]
Following the calculation of pressure, temperature and thermo- regarding the calculation of entropy and mass ow rate at each
dynamic properties at all states of the heat recovery cycle, exergy, state of the cycle depicted in Fig. 1. However, large deviations
which is dened as the maximum possible reversible work [27], is observed in calculating exergy destruction at states 7, 8, 9, and
calculated at each state before and after every component using 10 of the cycle, as well as at the inlets and outlets of cooling/heat-
the following ing streams passing through absorber, condenser, and evaporator.
We attribute these deviations to the differences between two mod-
e h  h0  T 0 s  s0 53
els not only in the calculation of enthalpy at those states but also in
where e (kJ/kg) is the specic exergy, s (kJ/kg) is the entropy, and the calculation of properties at the reference point (see Eq. (53)).
subscript 0 is for the reference point. In our model, we used REF- From Table 8 we can see that the differences between our model
PROP [18] to calculate entropy of water and the equation presented and the one developed by Aphornratana and Eames [22] in deter-
by Kaita [19] to calculate the of LiBrwater solution. Standard atmo- mining refrigerant/solution properties, in methods used to calcu-
spheric pressure and temperature are considered as the reference late system pressures and nally, and maybe more importantly,
points: T0 = 25 C and p0 = 101.3 kPa. Subsequently, the steady-ow in the reference points lead to higher deviations in calculating
exergy reduction at each component is calculated as [15] the total exergy destruction (18%).
X X   It is also seen that the deviation between two models in calcu-
T
DE _ 
me _ Q_ 1  0  W
me _ 54 lating energy destruction for system components can be very large
in out
T and as high as 160%. We attributed these large deviations to the
differences between two models as indicated in Tables 4 and 6.
where DE (kJ) is the exergy destruction. Q_ (kJ/kg) and W
_ (kJ/kg) are
the rate of heat transfer and work, respectively. To satisfy the 2nd
law, exergy reduction in every component must be greater than 3.2. Description of the novel heat recovery system
zero. Implementation of the exergy analysis limits the maximum
COP or efciency of the system and also restricts the quality of Here we describe a novel data center waste heat recovery sys-
waste heat delivered to AR system. tem, which is constructed by simplifying the on-chip two-phase
In order to verify the expanded model for 2nd law analysis, we hybrid cooling system introduced by Marcinichen et al. [15,31]
compared our model results with the results of the corresponding and replacing the condenser in their design by the generator of
models developed by Rubio-Maya et al. [21] and Aphornratana and our AR cycle. Fig. 5 depicts the system in which a singleeffect
Eames [22]. Table 6 compares the specications of reference point AR cycle is integrated into the simplied on-chip cooling cycle. In
as well as the adopted methods for the calculation of entropy for this conguration, the heat dissipated by microprocessors is
water and LiBrwater solution between our model and those of removed (though micro-evaporators and the coolant-ow), then
Rubio-Maya et al. [21] and Aphornratana and Eames [22]. upgraded (as the coolant-ow passes through the compressor)

Table 6
Comparison between our and reference models regarding the adopted parameters and methods in the 2nd law analysis.

Type of parameter Present study Rubio-Maya et al. [21] Aphornratana and Eames [22]
Reference point used for the calculation of exergy (Eq. (53)) T0 = 25 C and T0 = 25 C and Water at T0 = 20 C (reference pressure not specied)
p0 = 101.3 kPa p0 = 101.3 kPa
Entropy of water REFPROP [18] IAPWS [30] Irvine and Liley [24]
Entropy of LiBrwater solution Kaita [19] Kaita [19] Their own novel method [22]

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10 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

Table 8 4. The heat transfer rate at Micro-Evaporator is 162.5 W.

Verication of our model expanded for exergy analysis through the comparison of our
results with those of Aphornratana and Eames [22]. The input data are the same as
used by Aphornratana and Eames [22] (see Table 2).
Knowing the heat transfer rate at Micro-Evaporator, the
enthalpy and pressure at state points 1 and 2 is determined.
System MATLAB Model- Aphornratana and Deviation (%) Assuming a value for generator temperature, the enthalpy and
component present study Eames [22] (absolute value)
pressure 3 and 4 are determined and subsequently the heat trans-
Generator 23.24 30.42 23.6 fer rate at generator is calculated. After the calculation of heat
Evaporator 13.83 12.18 13.5
Absorber 32.90 25.58 28.6
transfer at generator, the rest of solution method is the same as
Condenser 26.37 10.29 156.3 explained in Section 3.1.1.
Solution heat 0.0324 1.808 98.2
exchanger
Solution valve 1.98  105 0.004 99.50 3.2.2. Parametric study and signicance of developing of the model
Expansion 5.20  106 0.86 100 Following the development and verication of our model, it is
valve used to study the effectiveness of the novel waste heat recovery
Total 96.38 81.15 18.8 system. We perform a thermo-economic analysis to nd the effect
of heat quality and server coolant type on the COP and the ef-
ciency of the system. Based on the equipment cost information
obtained from the AR industry, the payback period is calculated.
Assuming the maximum allowable temperature of the micro-
processor is 85 C [15] and the amount of heat dissipated by the
micro-processors is 162.5 W, the effect of the quality of upgraded
waste heat delivered to the generator of AR on the COP of the sys-
tem is investigated. It is assumed that the temperature of generator
is the same as the temperature of the upgraded waste heat deliv-
ered to this component. This assumption allows the analysis of
the system under the best possible conditions to determine its via-
bility. The effect of temperature drop in the waste heat generator
exchanger can be accounted for by considering a slightly lower
temperature in Fig 7.
Four different coolants in the server cooling cycle are taken into
consideration, which include HFC 245fa, HFC 245ca, HFC 1234ZE,
and water. It is noteworthy that here we introduce a revised de-
nition for COP. In the conguration shown in Fig. 5, instead of pay-
ing for the waste heat, we pay for the compressor power.
Therefore, the denition for COP should reect the system input
and is now dened as

Q_ e
COPnew 55
W_P

Fig. 5. Schematic of a waste heat recovery system where the server dissipated heat Fig. 7 shows the results of our analysis, when the minimum
is converted to useful cooling. temperature of the waste heat (generator temperature) is 65 C.
The upper limit for the range of upgraded waste heat temperature
is restricted by the second law of thermodynamics. It is seen that
and nally delivered to the generator of AR (through a heat the upper limit for the temperature of the upgraded waste heat
exchanger). AR is operated using the heat removed from the can be as high as 100 C (for HFC 245fa) and as low as 85 C (for
micro-processor as the input at the generator. The cooling load HFC 1234ZE). We also see that using HFC 1234ZE as the working
produced by the AR can then be used to remove heat from addi- uid in the server cooling cycle leads to the highest COP value of
tional micro-processors. The indicated state points in the simpli- 5. Another very useful gure of merit (FoM) in analyzing the sys-
ed on-chip two-phase cooling cycle illustrated in Fig. 5 are tem is dened as:
shown in Fig. 6, which is the pressure-enthalpy diagram for HFC-
245fa. We see that through the energy added by the compressor Q_ MP
FoM 56
the quality of waste heat is upgraded and reaches temperatures Q_ e
as high as 90 C [15]. As mentioned earlier, the risk of crystalliza-
tion only occurs when the concentration of the strong absorbent where Q_ MP is rate of heat dissipated by the micro-processors and Q_ e
exceeds 65%. As is shown in Fig 6 (a) in this conguration, the con- is the cooling produced at the evaporator (see Fig. 5). The signi-
centration of the strong line remains below this threshold. cance of this gure of merit comes from the fact that it indicates
the number of servers or racks required to be coupled with an AR
3.2.1. Upgrading the model for the steady-state thermodynamic in order to produce sufcient cooling load for another single server
simulation of the novel system or rack. Fig. 8 shows the results using FoM for various generator and
In addition to the assumptions listed in Section 3.1.1, the fol- microprocessor temperatures. For the results presented in Fig. 8,
lowing assumptions were also considered when upgrading the HFC 245fa was used as the coolant in the server cooling cycle, the
model for the novel system. reect worst case conditions. The upper limit on the coolant tem-
perature at the microprocessor is determined by the 2nd law anal-
1. At state 1 the coolant is a saturated liquid (Fig. 6(b)). ysis. It is seen that in the worst case, the heat dissipated by 5 servers
2. At states 2 and 3 the coolant is a saturated vapor (Fig. 6(b)). or racks can operate an AR machine that will produce sufcient
3. At state 4 the coolant is sub-cooled (Fig. 6(b)). cooling for another single server or rack of the same type.

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
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 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx 11

Fig. 6. Different state-points of refrigerant (water), solution (LiBrwater) and coolant (HFC-245fa) for the waste heat recovery system depicted in Fig. 5. (a) P-T diagram for
LiBrwater AR [32]. (b) P-h diagram for the coolant (HFC-245fa) in the simplied on-chip two-phase cooling cycle.

Fig. 7. The effect of upgraded waste heat temperature on the COP of the rst type of
the novel heat recovery system. Fig. 8. The behavior of the newly dened gure of merit (see Eq. (56)) when the
generator and microprocessor temperatures vary and the refrigerant is HFC 245fa.

eral Yazaki AR systems with different cooling capacities [34]. The

4. Economic analysis price of these units varies between $30 K and $75 K.
Considering a data center in the range of 210 MW, the energy
In order to perform the thermo-economic analysis, various AR saving and payback periods for AR units are determined. In order to
manufacturers were contacted to obtain information on cost and perform the calculations, the following assumptions are needed:
specications of AR systems currently available in the market.
Broad USA [33] and Yazaki [34] were identied as major AR man-  Every rack dissipates 10 kW of waste heat.
ufacturers in the United States. Broad USA is mainly interested in  The racks are water-cooled and the owrate of water in every
developing Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facilities in data cen- rack is 510 GPM [1].
ters and Yazaki produces water red LiBrwater AR units which  The temperature of outlet cooling water is 7075 C, however,
are able to operate with low quality waste heat of temperatures due to ineffectiveness of intermediate heat exchanger can be
(as low as 70 C). Table 9 shows the technical specications of sev- as low as 60 C.

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12 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

Table 9
Specications of Yazaki AR products which are designed to operate with low-quality heat [34]. A ton of cooling is 3517 W (12,000 Btu/h).

5-Ton 10-Ton 20-Ton 30-Ton 50-Ton

Heat input (kW) 25.116 50.232 100.465 150.697 251.162
Temperature (C) 88 inlet/83 outlet
Allowable temperature (C) 7095
Rated water ow (GPM) 19 38 76.1 114.1 190.4
Allowable water ow (% of rated) 30120

Table 10
The number of 10 kW racks provides heat and cooled by each type of Yazaki AR chillers.

5-Ton (17.6 kW) 10-Ton (35.17 kW) 20-Ton (70.34 kW) 30-Ton (105.5 kW) 50-Ton (175.8 kW)
Number of racks provide required heat for the 3 6 11 16 26
operation of ONE machine
Number of racks cooled by ONE machine 1 3 7 10 17
Number of racks removed from CRAC unit using 4 9 18 26 43
ONE machine
Water ow-rate supplied by the racks provide 1530 (Max 3060 (Max 55110 (Max 80160 (Max 156260 (Max
heat for AR machine (GPM) allowable: 22.8) allowable: 45.6) allowable: 91.32) allowable: 136.92) allowable: 228.48)

Fig. 9. Arrangement of 18 racks and AR chiller in a 2 MW data center.

Comparison of the cooling capacity and heat input of every AR A 10 MW data center features 1000 racks of 10 kW each. Con-
unit from Table 9 with the amount of heat dissipated by a single sidering Table 10, we see that every 43 racks can be managed by
rack leads us to the numbers presented in Table 10. For each type a 50-ton AR chiller. Of these 43 racks, 26 of them dissipate their
of AR, Table 10 shows the number of racks that are required to pro- heat directly into the generator of the AR system and another 17
vide sufcient heat at the generator and how many racks can be have their heat removed using the chilled water produced by the
cooled using the cooling produced by the same AR unit. Thus, AR system. Therefore, using 23 chillers of 50-ton capacity, 989
Table 10 shows the total number of racks removed from the CRAC racks can be removed from the CRAC unit and the CRAC load is
load through the use of a specic AR unit. decreased from 1000 to 11 (98.9% CRAC load reduction). Of course
For a 2 MW data center, which consists of 200 racks, the infor- the data center can be designed to feature racks in multiples of 43,
mation presented in Table 10 shows that 18 racks can be managed potentially eliminating any need for server cooling using the CRAC,
with a 20-ton AR chiller. Of these 18 racks, 11 of them dissipate depending on specic data center operational needs. The arrange-
their heat directly into the generator of the AR system. Another 7 ment of racks and chiller, in every group of 43 racks is shown in
have their heat removed using the evaporator of the AR system. Fig. 10. The footprint area of the 50 ton chiller is approximately
Therefore using ten 20-ton capacity chillers, 180 racks can be that of 3 racks. The chiller is located at the center in this gure,
removed from the CRAC load (18 managed by each chiller). There- but many different congurations are possible.
fore, the number of racks cooled by CRAC unit is decreased from An economic analysis for both the 2 and 10 MW data centers is
200 to 20 (90% CRAC load reduction). Of course the data center shown in Tables 11 and 12, respectively. In calculating the num-
can be designed to have racks in multiples of 18, potentially elim- bers presented in these tables the following assumptions were
inating any need for server cooling using the CRAC, depending on made:
specic data center operational needs. The footprint area of each
20-ton AR unit is about that of two racks. The arrangement of racks  The number of data center operating hours in one year is 7500.
and AR units in groups of 18 racks is shown in Fig. 9. In this partic-  The cost of electricity is $0.08 per kW h [15].
ular arrangement, the AR unit is located at the center, but congu-  The prices of the chillers are: 50-ton: $75,000, 20-ton: $50,000
ration can vary for each data center. [35].

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
eration. Appl Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.067
 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx 13

Fig. 10. Arrangement of 43 racks and AR chiller in a 10 MW data center.

Table 11
Table of energy savings for a 2 MW data center when ten 20-ton AR chillers are installed.

Before being retrotted with Yazaki 20-Ton absorption After being retrotted with Yazaki 20-Ton absorption machines
machines
Annual electricity 200 (number of racks)  10 kW (power of each 200 (number of racks)  10 kW (power of each rack)  7500 h (total working
consumption rack)  7500 h (total working hours in a year = 15,000,000 hours in a year = 15,000,000
(kW h/year)
Annual electricity cost 15,000,000 kW h (annual electricity consumption)  0.08 15,000,000 kW h (annual electricity consumption)  0.08 (electricity cost per
($/year) (electricity cost per kW h) = $1,200,000 kW h) = $1,200,000
Annual cooling cost $1,200,000 for a typical data center energy usage of cooling $1,200,000 (cooling cost before retrot)  (1/10) = $120,000 the number of
($/year) system is equivalent to energy usage of servers racks cooled by data center cooling system decreased from 200 to 20
(reduction factor of 1/10)
Total annual cost 2,400,000 1,320,000
($/year)

Table 12
Table of energy savings for a 10 MW data center when twenty-three 50-ton chillers are used in the waste heat recovery.

Before being retrotted with Yazaki 20-Ton absorption machines After being retrotted with Yazaki 20-Ton absorption machines
Annual electricity 1000 (number of racks)  10 kW (power of each 200 (number of racks)  10 kW (power of each rack)  7500 h (total working
consumption rack)  7500 h (total working hours in a hours in a year = 15,000,000
(kW h/year) year = 75,000,000
Annual electricity 75,000,000 kW h (annual electricity 75,000,000 kW h (annual electricity consumption)  0.08 (electricity cost
cost ($/year) consumption)  0.08 (electricity cost per per
kW h) = $6,000,000 kW h) = $6,000,000
Annual cooling cost $6,000,000 for a typical data center energy usage of $6,000,000 (cooling cost before retrot)  (11/1000) = $66,000 the number
($/year) cooling system is equivalent to energy usage of of
servers racks cooled by data center cooling system decreased from 1000 to 11
(reduction factor of 11/1000)
Total annual cost 12,000,000 6,066,000
($/year)

 The price of 20-ton cooling tower is $20,000 [35]. two phase cooling cycle developed by Marcinichen et al. [15,32] we
 The cooling cost and power cost are the same. introduced a novel conguration for waste heat recovery and usage
from electronic components. In developing this conguration some
With the above, an approximate payback period can be estimated. simplications were made in the original on-chip, two phase cool-
We say approximate because the calculations do not include the cost ing cycle and the condenser was replaced by the generator of a
of operation and maintenance of the AR system. The approximate absorption refrigeration system to produce cooling. A detailed
payback period of an AR system for a 2 MW data center is between thermodynamic rst and second law analysis is developed and val-
78 months, and for a 10 MW data center is between 45 months. idated. The analysis showed that LiBrwater systems outperform
waterAmmonia AR systems when applied to data center operat-
5. Summary and conclusions ing conditions.
For waste heat conversion to cooling, the selection of the server
Considering the fact that liquid/two phase cooled data centers coolant type, the quality of heat delivered to the generator and the
are able to deliver higher quality waste heat and using the on-chip temperature of the micro-processor are shown to have signicant

Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
eration. Appl Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.067
14 K. Ebrahimi et al. / Applied Energy xxx (2014) xxxxxx

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Please cite this article in press as: Ebrahimi K et al. Thermo-economic analysis of steady state waste heat recovery in data centers using absorption refrig-
eration. Appl Energy (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.10.067