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Intermax reduces CO2 emissions with immersion cooling

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Who dares to immerse their server in oil? Ludo Baauw, CEO of Intermax Group, invites customers to innovate with him, iXora and NorthC by exploring a new way of cooling servers: immersion cooling. At the NorthC data center in Rotterdam Zestienhoven, this technology is already in use.

Baauw is the CEO of Intermax Group, a collective of seven managed service providers and managed security companies that work for many large enterprises, hospitals and government organizations. The company has 225 employees who keep more than 10,000 servers running. They do this with impressive efficiency, as these 10,000 servers together produce only 200 tons of CO₂ emissions per year, comparable to eight households’ footprint. “But we’re not easily satisfied,” says Baauw. “Our ambition is to reduce our CO2 emissions to zero by 2030. Additionally, the goal is to use less electricity every year — which is already deep green and officially causes no CO2 emissions.”

Making server capacity more efficient

To achieve this goal, Intermax is running several programmes to use server capacity and energy more efficiently. Intermax engineers actively work with technologies like Kubernetes and Cloud Native to ensure that servers which are temporarily not needed are switched off. The company also engages with customers about their behaviour: for example, what can be saved by properly archiving and deleting data on time? Are they aware that a single ChatGPT search consumes about 200 times more energy than a Google search? In addition, Intermax encourages customers to switch to dynamic energy contracts and helps them schedule heavy workloads when green energy is widely available and electricity prices are low.

Immersion cooling

“The biggest step we can take is in cooling,” says Baauw. “Roughly half of a data center’s energy consumption goes to cooling. We want to make sure the air conditioning can be turned off.”

This is possible using technology from iXora, a company that produces special 19-inch cassettes for immersion cooling. This cooling method submerges server motherboards in a special non-conductive fluid that slightly resembles baby oil. This synthetic fluid absorbs the heat from the electronic components and transfers it via a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger extracts the heat from the fluid in which the server is submerged and feeds it into the data center’s existing water network.

At the NorthC data center in Zestienhoven, this heat will eventually feed into the future district heating network of Schiebroek. “A major advantage of immersion cooling is the ability to reuse waste heat. This way, we can turn off the air conditioning in the data center and reduce household gas consumption,” explains Baauw.

“This kind of innovation is only possible with a partner you trust. A partner who shares your belief in a sustainable future.”

Ludo Baauw, CEO Intermax Group

iXora’s solution: silent, low-maintenance and modular

Immersion cooling offers another benefit. “Unlike traditional cooling systems, these cassettes make no noise. And because they have no moving parts, they require hardly any maintenance and immediately consume less power. Equipment also lasts longer due to reduced wear and tear,” Baauw says.

There are two other suppliers of immersion cooling besides iXora. “But they use large oil-filled tanks where you submerge the entire server. That may seem simple, but it’s not. These tanks have dimensions that are not standard in a data center. Moreover, if such a tank fails, dozens of servers are at risk of overheating and shutting down. iXora takes a different approach by using cassettes that fit into a standard 19-inch rack, where you place the motherboards. The cassette replaces the traditional server housing. This modular design makes it much more flexible to scale up or down,” says Baauw.

Working together on innovation

Baauw approached NorthC to conduct joint research with Intermax and iXora into the effectiveness of immersion cooling and new cost allocation models. This research is taking place at the NorthC data center in Rotterdam. Baauw explains: “Everyone recognises this technology will be cheaper in the long run. You save on cooling, and the residual heat is reused. But in the short term, you have to invest. This proof of concept will clarify how we can best divide the costs and benefits. We are also working to solve practical challenges directly in practice.”

That is why Intermax selected NorthC for this pilot. “This kind of innovation is only possible with a partner you trust. A partner who, like us, believes in a sustainable future and is willing to invest in it. It is great to see our long-standing partnership take this innovative next step,” Baauw concludes.

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