Durham University launches immersion cooling for greener HPC

Durham University has deployed a new immersion cooling system as part of its efforts to reduce the environmental impact of high-performance computing.

The university has partnered with Vesper Technologies, Midas Immersion Cooling, and Valvoline Global to install Midas' 50U XCI immersion cooling unit within the Immersion Cooling and Heat Storage (ICHS) Living Lab. The Living Lab is focused on researching how immersion cooling solutions can be paired with seasonal heat storage to improve compute power and energy efficiency, as well as address challenges around water and energy consumption in data centres.

International collaboration

This international partnership involves Durham University's IT and facilities teams working with Vespertec, which integrated the Midas 50U XCI system to meet the university's requirements for both performance and sustainability. The solution incorporates specialist hardware from GIGABYTE and advanced cooling fluids from Valvoline Global. These fluids are designed to efficiently transfer heat and facilitate large-scale immersion cooling operations.

The deployment aims to support graduate research that depends on ultra-high-compute workloads, such as intensive simulations and artificial intelligence processing, while reducing overall environmental costs associated with data centre operations.

Technical features

The Midas 50U XCI unit replaces traditional rows of air-cooled server racks with a single immersion tank that accommodates an ultra-dense compute cluster. By submerging hardware in a cooling fluid, the technology achieves more efficient heat transfer than conventional air cooling, allowing high performance computing tasks to run with reduced energy requirements for cooling. The system has been tailored to Durham's research requirements, offering a cohesive environment for advanced academic work.

The current phase focuses on immersion cooling for heavy computational tasks, while the next stage will introduce heat recapture within the system, effectively creating a live testbed for exploring additional sustainable computing solutions.

Supporting sustainability

Vespertec's AI Lab in Stockport mirrors live customer environments with scaled-down models of installations, including the Midas immersion setup now active at Durham. This capability enables Vespertec to replicate deployment conditions and provide support during the system's lifecycle.

This partnership is a great example of how academia and industry can come together to tackle both computational and environmental challenges. Together with Durham University, we were able to demonstrate the potential of Midas' immersion technology in a research environment and establish a concrete reference point for others exploring new ways to cut CO2 impact and advance data centre innovation. Our goal is to take these learnings to the wider market, and Durham's collaborative approach makes them a great partner for what's to come!

Industry perspectives

Scott Sickmiller, Chief Executive Officer at Midas Immersion Cooling, commented on the Durham installation:

This deployment at Durham University marks a significant milestone for Midas, as we expand our presence in the UK. By combining our immersion technology with integration partners like Vespertec, we're helping universities like Durham push the boundaries of high-performance research while growing sustainable IT operations.

Dr. George Zhang, Vice President of Research and Development at Valvoline Global, also spoke on the collaboration:

This deployment is about enabling cutting-edge technology for demanding research workloads while demonstrating paths to sustainability. In collaboration with Midas' immersion technology and Vespertec infrastructure expertise, Valvoline Global's advanced fluids help make immersion cooling practical at scale, supported by the expertise and commitment of our team throughout the process.

Future developments

The next stage of the project will see the integration of heat recapture systems, aiming to convert waste heat generated by computing into usable energy. Researchers and technology partners expect that the Living Lab's results could provide insights for wider adoption of immersion cooling within both academic and enterprise data centres, with potential reductions in resource consumption and carbon footprint.