OK, Can We Actually Cool Data Centers with Our Pee?

In a cheeky marketing campaign, Liquid Death teamed up with former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce to share a solution to mitigate the environmental impact of AI data centers, which require massive quantities of water to prevent servers from overheating.

Source: techcrunch.com

“AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water,” Kelce quips in the video campaign. “That’s why Liquid Death and Garage Beer have teamed up. We want your pee to cool these data centers.”

Then, as a crowd of people walk through a field sipping their branded beverages, they sing in unison: “Let’s pee on computers together to save humanity!”

It’s a funny commercial. What’s even funnier is that Kelce has unwittingly stumbled upon a real tactic for cooling down data centers.

Recycled Water: A Viable Solution

“The Liquid Death commercial is funny and tongue-in-cheek,” Michael Obradovitch, vice president of Data Center Global Accounts at Ecolab, told TechCrunch. “But in reality, there is a fair amount of alternative water sources already being used to a similar extent to cool these data centers.”

These alternative water sources, when used in data centers, at least partially offset the demand for potable drinking water. One such alternative water source is recycled water, which is made by treating wastewater and sewage water so that they’re safe to use again.

“You wouldn’t just use pee, but you can clean it and make it into useful water, and that’s what we advocate,” Bruno Pigott, executive director of the WateReuse Association and former acting assistant administrator in water for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told TechCrunch.

Recycled water is made by treating wastewater and sewage water using various processes such as membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet light. This water can be treated to the point where it’s clean enough for industrial use, including cooling data centers.

According to Dr. Greta Zornes, practice leader for water reuse at the engineering firm CDM Smith, “We use recycled water for cooling for all kinds of industries, and we have for decades. So this is only one application, but definitely, there’s been a boom in recycled water for data center cooling.”

The Challenges of Implementing Recycled Water

While recycled water is a viable solution for cooling data centers, there are several challenges associated with implementing it. One of the main challenges is the infrastructure required to treat and distribute recycled water.

“You have to be somewhat near a waste water treatment facility that’s sizable enough that you have enough water to use,” Zornes said. “So when data centers go out into rural areas, a lot of times the wastewater treatment plants just aren’t big enough — they’re not treating enough water for them to be able to take it and treat it and use it.”

Another challenge is the time it takes to build out the necessary infrastructure. As Zornes pointed out, “There’s a lot of infrastructure that has to be built out and usually isn’t existing today, and that takes time. That’s one of the problems — it’s just the time that it takes to get that done.”

The Role of Data Centers in Driving Water Infrastructure Development

Data centers can actually drive resources toward building out this kind of infrastructure to scale water treatment. Meta, for example, will invest at least $270 million in wastewater infrastructure projects near its data centers.

“That’s where data centers can actually come in and be anchors of water infrastructure,” Obradovitch said. “There’s a number of cases and examples where data centers, as part of their engagement with communities, have committed funding and capital to some of these municipalities to help in addressing some of those exact challenges.”

On the policy side, Pigott is advocating for legislation that would provide a 30% tax credit to help industries scale their recycled water infrastructure.

“We think it would greatly accelerate the pace with which data centers and other industries entered into this area,” he said.

Conclusion

While the idea of using pee to cool data centers may seem far-fetched, it highlights the need for innovative solutions to mitigate the environmental impact of AI data centers. Recycled water is a viable solution, but it requires significant infrastructure development and time to implement.

Data centers can play a crucial role in driving the development of water infrastructure and advocating for policies that support the use of recycled water. By working together, we can reduce the environmental impact of AI data centers and create a more sustainable future.