HVAC Equipment, Data Centers

The Next Chapter in Data Center Cooling: Munters SyCool

LONG is proud to represent Munters Data Center Cooling Solutions. Munters has a long history of industry-leading innovation and their latest product offering is no different.

Munters SyCool is a premium efficiency split D/X cooling system for data centers. This best-in-class solution provides industry leading efficiencies for new and retrofit installations where access to a suitable water supply may be limited, expensive, or unreliable.

Munters SyCool is a response to the following industry trends:

  • Water usage sensitivity
  • High density computing
  • Multi-story construction
  • Low operating cost targets

This system is available in 400 kW blocks of cooling capacity. Thermosyphon heat exchangers move heat from the data center to ambient through the evaporation of liquid refrigerant in the SyCool CRAH, and condensing of the same refrigerant in the SyCool condenser. The indoor unit (CRAH) is connected to the outdoor unit (condenser) with refrigerant piping allowing up to 500’ of separation. As long as the outdoor ambient air is cooler than the return air temperatures in the data hall, heat is exchanged passively for “free cooling” of the data center. Figure 1 shows a basic schematic.

Figure 1

SyCool thermal effectiveness is nominally 70%, which greatly exceeds that of competing refrigerant based economizer systems. For example, in a data center with 75°F supply air and 95°F return air, Sycool achieves 100% free cooling when the ambient dry bulb temperature is 65°F and below, and partial economization is possible when the ambient dry bulb is between 65°F and 95°F. As ambient temperature rises above 65°F, SyCool transitions from passive to active cooling by staging/modulating compressors located in the condenser section. Data center heat is rejected by the thermosyphon, passively or actively without the need for control valves, allowing seamless transition from economizer to active cooling.

The high heat exchange effectiveness, coupled with the ability to operate in a hybrid mode (or partial economization), results in the best in industry economizer capture efficiency, as depicted in Figure 2. Maximizing free cooling helps to minimize the mechanical PUE of the cooling system. This characteristic, combined with low fan energy, results in SyCool consuming about 50% of the annual cooling energy of the primary competing waterless technology.

Figure-2-1

SyCool allows us to leverage the flexibility of refrigerant based systems, while achieving efficiency targets only seen before with water-based solutions.

Today, this system is available in 400kw (115 Tons) modules. In 2021, the product line will continue to evolve and we expect to see 200-250kw (60 Tons) modules.

View our mini webinar here for an even deeper look into Munters SyCool.

For additional information on Munters SyCool and other Data Center Solutions, contact Jason Long at jason.long@long.com.

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Jason Long

Jason Long is a Data Center Sales Engineer for LONG Building Technologies in our Littleton, CO office.