westurner 2 years ago

> Ask HN: How to reuse waste heat and water from AI datacenters?

- Steam Turbine

- Thermoelectrics (solid state)

- Gravel Battery, Sand Battery (solid state)

- OTEC: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (needs a 20C gradient)

- Water Sterilization

- Heat Pipe contract

- Commercial and Residential HVAC Heat

- Air Filter Production (CO2, Graphene, Heat)

- Water Filter Production (CO2, Graphene, Heat)

- Onsite manufacturing with Carbon & Heat (See: Datacenter Inputs)

- Carbon-based Chip Production (2D Graphene and other forms of Carbon)

- Thermoforming products (e.g. out of now easily-captured CO2 to Graphene and other forms of Carbon)

- Geopolymer production: pads to mount racks on, bricks, radially-curved outwall blocks

- Open-Source CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics; use the waste heat to pay for CFD HPC time to reduce the waste heat with better materials, better facility design with passive thermofluidics and energy reclamation

- Datacenter Inputs: [Earthmoving, Infrastructure], Water, Air, Concrete, Beams, Electricity, Turbines, Bolts, Racks, Fans, PCs, Copper power Wires and data Cabling, Bandwidth, Fiber Cabling

- Datacenter Outputs: Boiled Water, Warm Air, Data, recyclable building materials, Electricity

  • westurner 2 years ago

    > Ask HN: How to reuse waste heat and water from AI datacenters?

    > - Steam Turbine

    > - Thermoelectrics

    > - Gravel Battery, Sand Battery

    > - OTEC: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (needs a 20C gradient)

    "Ask HN: Does OTEC work with datacenter heat, or thermoelectrics?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40821522

    > - Water Sterilization

    FWIU most datacenters waste the sterilized water as steam, which has some evaporative cooling value?

    In which markets is it already possible for datacenters [and other industrial production facilities] to sell or give sterilized water to the water supply utility?

    "Ask HN: Methods for removing parts per trillions of PFAS from water?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40036764 ; RO: Reverse Osmosis, Zwitterionic hydrogels (that are reusable if washed with ethanol)

    > - Heat Pipe contract

    E.g. Copenhagen Atomics wants to sell a heat pipe contract promise and manage the (Thorium+ waste burner) heat production.

    It takes extra heat to pump heat through a tube underground to a building next door, but it is worth it.

    > - Commercial and Residential HVAC Heat

    The OTEC Wikipedia article mentions Ammonia as a Working fluid (a thermofluid), but Ammonia.

    Sustainable thermofluids for heat pumps would be a good use for materials design AI.

    "AI Designs Magnet Free of Rare-Earth Metals in Just 3 Months" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40775959

    > - Air Filter Production (CO2, Graphene, Heat)

    > - Water Filter Production (CO2, Graphene, Heat)

    > - Onsite manufacturing with Carbon & Heat (See: Datacenter Inputs)

    Also meet ASTM spec for which products produced onsite.

    > - Carbon-based Chip Production (2D Graphene and other forms of Carbon)

    "Ask HN: Can CPUs etc. be made from just graphene and/or other carbon forms?" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40719725

    > - Thermoforming products (e.g. out of now easily-captured CO2 to Graphene and other forms of Carbon)

    > - Geopolymer production: pads to mount racks on, bricks, radially-curved outwall blocks

    Is this new peptide glass a functional substitute for "water glass" in other geopolymer formulas? "Self-healing glass from a simple peptide – just add water" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40677095

    > - Open-Source CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics; use the waste heat to pay for CFD HPC time to reduce the waste heat with better materials, better facility design with passive thermofluidics and energy reclamation

    Quantum CFD. https://westurner.github.io/hnlog/#comment-39954180 Ctrl-F CFD, SQS

    > - Datacenter Inputs: [Earthmoving, Infrastructure], Water, Air, Concrete, Beams, Electricity, Turbines, Bolts, Racks, Fans, PCs, Copper power Wires and data Cabling, Bandwidth, Fiber Cabling

    Biocomposites and Titanium are strong enough for beams and fan blades; though on corrosion due to water, titanium probably wins. "Cheap yet ultrapure titanium metal might enable widespread use in industry" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40768549

    Is there a carbon-based copper alternative for cabling that's flexible enough to work at CAT-5/6/7/8 ethernet cable; 40GBase-T at 2000 Mhz?

    There appear to be electron vortices and superconductivity in carbon at room temperature.

    Can we replace copper with carbon in cables and computers?

    > - Datacenter Outputs: Boiled Water, Warm Air, Data, recyclable building materials, Electricity

    - "Ask HN: Why don't datacenters have passive rooflines like Net Zero homes?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37579505