JOHOR BAHRU, 24 November 2016 – Malaysia-UK research and Innovation Bridges Team from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) secured a research grant worth of RM12.9 million from Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT).
The project consortium consisting of UTM, Green Data Center LLP Sdn Bhd, Heriot-Watt University United Kingdom and Dearman Engine United Kingdom will run a research project titled “Next Generation Green Data Centres for Environmental and Business Sustainability.”
The Asia Pacific Green Data Center Farm, a holistically green data center environment. Data centers consume huge amounts of electricity and have equally large carbon footprints. In fact, the data center industry are in the top 10 of industries with the biggest carbon footprint. İf the dc industry were a country, İt would be country no 5 in the world as the largest co2 emitter.
UTM My Industrial Leader, Professor Dr Jalil Ali said, the research on Asia Pacific Green Data Center Farm could reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent, improve energy security and reduce localised emissions caused by diesel powered backup generators.
“This research project brings together innovative technologies developed in Malaysia and the United Kingdom and aims to improve the sustainability of data centres, by changing the way they are cooled.”
“This game changer and disruptive novel technology will pave the way for future data centres,” he said.
Moreover Professor Jalil mentioned that the same project has also won the United Nation’s prestigious World Summit on Information Society (UN WSIS) award in May 2016 which was the first time ever for Malaysia.
“As part of the project, an innovative ‘next generation green data centre’ will be established in the Klang Valley.
This project will merge 2 game changing technologies from Malaysia and the UK. Submersify fully submerses ICT devices into a coolant. The heat transfers from the servers to the coolant which then gets cooled cheaply.
The Dearman engine from UK will intercept the heat from the coolant and transform it into electricity for the data centers uninterruptible power systems and comfort cooling.
“This project is pushing the technical boundaries even further by fitting 20 foot containers with the technology.this will allow data centers to be deployed anywhere cheaply and each container will have six racks.
“By stacking nine containers, it only takes 500sqft of land to host 2000 servers,” he explained.
The side walls of the containers he said, will feature a vertical green wall for added insulation and aesthetics.
They reduce the overall energy consumption and carbon footprint by 50 percents. The capex is between 50 to 70 percents lower.
So far they have already finished two milestones which is the design and strategy and they have started on the 3rd milestone which is manufacturing and are within schedule.
It will feature cutting-edge liquid submersion cooling technologies introduced by Green Data Center alongside with the Dearman Engine, which harness expansion of liquid nitrogen to provide zero-emission back up power and cooling,” he explained.
Heriot-Watt University will provide systems integration and sustainability analysis to ensure that the technologies deliver maximum environmental benefit in addressing a critical socio-economic urban development challenge.
Meanwhile UTM will support the project by developing a sustainable data ecosystem from the real industrial perspective.
“It will create a replicable and commercially viable approach to sustainable computing for reconciling urbanisation with environmental risk and climate change globally.
“We at UTM are proud to be part of this collaboration that will lead to significant social impact through improved urban air quality, enabling sustainable connectivity, and the creation of a green technology commercialization hub in Malaysia,” said Professor Jalil.
It is portraying a positive and progressive image of UTM in global research and innovation bridges aside from bringing funding to the institute.
The winning team comprises of Prof Dr Jalil Ali, Prof Dr Roman Poznanski, Dr Zuhaib Haider, Dr Kashif Tufail, Dr Safwan Aziz, Dr Suzairi Daud, Dr Lleuvelyn Cacha and Dr Mahdi Bahadoran.
The project has already been kickstarted at UK side. We have also initiated the project with our Malaysian industrial partner since October 1st 2016. It is expected to be completed within a period of 30 months.