Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer an emerging technology – it’s a fundamental element powering nearly every digital interaction. Gallup reports that 99% of Americans interact with AI-driven products weekly. Behind the scenes, large-scale data centers shoulder this immense computational burden, supporting high-performance AI, machine learning, and cloud-based applications.

As AI servers become faster and more powerful, they generate unprecedented levels of heat, pushing current cooling technologies to their limits and increasing operational costs.

Cooling Challenges Escalate with AI

AI workloads leverage advanced components, particularly graphical processing units (GPUs), that demand significant computational power, rapidly increasing heat output. According to McKinsey & Co., cooling already represents roughly 40% of a data center’s total energy consumption – an unsustainable figure given projected AI-driven growth.

Responding to these challenges, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has issued new guidelines recommending more energy-efficient cooling technologies, explicitly highlighting immersion cooling as an alternative.

Immersion Cooling: The Next Frontier

Immersion cooling involves submerging IT equipment in a dielectric, non-conductive fluid – such as specialized mineral oils or engineered silicones – to absorb and dissipate heat efficiently. Compared to air or conventional liquid cooling, immersion cooling significantly improves thermal management capabilities.

Two primary immersion cooling methods are leading the way:

• Single-phase immersion cooling: In this system, dielectric fluid remains liquid, continuously circulating through heat exchangers to dissipate server-generated heat.
• Two-phase immersion cooling: This method employs a fluorocarbon-based liquid that boils at low temperatures. Heat from servers vaporizes the fluid, which then condenses via integrated coils, creating an efficient, self-sustaining cooling cycle.

Why Immersion Cooling Matters

In some applications, immersion cooling offers higher thermal conductivity, dramatically reduced energy consumption, and greater Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). This directly translates to lower operational costs and prolonged hardware lifespan, since servers dissipate all the heat generated via the IT load in the fluid, requiring fewer mechanical components like fans which leads to reduced

Addressing Adoption Barriers

Despite clear benefits, immersion cooling faces practical barriers to widespread adoption:

• Infrastructure and Retrofitting: Many existing data centers are optimized solely for air cooling, requiring significant upfront investments and extensive retrofitting to accommodate immersion cooling systems.
• Hardware Compatibility: Servers designed for air cooling include components incompatible with immersion cooling, requiring industry-wide standards and OEM partnerships to streamline adoption.
• Operational Complexity: Immersion systems demand specialized training for data center staff, who traditionally manage air-cooled environments.
• Fluid Supply and Lifecycle Management: Dependence on specialized dielectric fluids introduces supply chain concerns and complicates disposal, necessitating rigorous fluid lifecycle management.

What’s Next for Immersion Cooling?

The global data center market, currently valued at $383 billion by Grand View Research, is projected by to reflecting rapid adoption driven by energy regulations and incentives. To accommodate this growth, immersion cooling technology will likely evolve through:

• Advances in fluid chemistry, creating more sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective dielectric liquids.
• Increased collaboration between hyperscalers and hardware vendors, standardizing immersion-compatible systems.
• Hybrid solutions simplifying retrofits in existing data centers, blending immersion and traditional cooling methods.

Immersion cooling isn’t merely an option – it’s becoming essential. As AI’s influence expands, pushing data centers to their operational limits, immersion cooling will increasingly define the industry’s sustainability and efficiency standards.

At Airedale by Modine, we’re solving for this evolution by providing advanced single-phase and two-phase immersion cooling systems, alongside coolant distribution units (CDUs) ranging from 400kW to 2MW capacity, designed specifically for hyperscale, colocation, and edge data centers.

Ready to future-proof your data center? Contact us today for a consultation tailored to your operational needs.