this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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I am so not an engineer, so maybe this is super stupid, but would there be some way to make it a closed loop by capturing the evaporated water and then letting it travel enough of a distance that it cools off and ~~liquefies~~ condenses and ends up in a holding pool?
Edit: I told you I was stupid.
It's actually how a liquid cooled PCs works. The warm liquid goes to a big radiator where fans blow air on the radiator to cool things. But lots of radiators becomes expensive and takes space. You're talking about a few hundred megawatt of heat.
The space would be a problem for sure, but couldn't you just use natural condensation to do it with a long enough pipe?
Yes, but you have to account for pressure differences. Steam condensing to water shrinks and causes big pressure changes. It's a lot easier to either vent it or use liquid everywhere.
Thats one option, part of strategies for reuse of liquid cooling.
To mention, its more energy efficient than air cooling, so there is a benefit. Smart companies though will also look to reuse strategies like using it for building heat. Larger companies will partner with the town/city to distribute the heat into town-wide systems, like for power generation or distributed heating systems, warm greenhouses, or even to dry out wood pellets for pellet stove systems.
Going long is effectively the same as using radiators though, you'll just need more pipe to do it without a radiator.
Probably expensive+ you're going to lose mass no matter what because physics don't give a shit.
You're describing rain.
Unless you are talking about the entire planet, I'm fairly certain rain is not part of a closed loop cooling system for a server farm.