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California's largest AI data center project suing for access to 287 million gallons of Colorado River water, 0.03% of Imperial Valley’s supply — plaintiffs claim project equivalent to 160-acre farm a… (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

What additives? If anything they want more pure water. Some systems use some part propylene glycol, but those are closed loop systems.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Pure water (deionized) is actually really bad for cooling systems because it will slowly dissolve the metals it's in contact with. You definitely want Distilled water (organic content removed) usually mixed with a glycol to improve corrosion protection and lower the freezing temps, with the most common one being ethylene glycol which can contaminate food and drinking water and make it unsafe for consumption

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    The water they're evaporating is not the same water flowing through servers. There would be a heat exchanger so that all the anti-corrosion additives stay in the closed loop side.

    Any additives at all in the evaporative side would just get concentrated more and more as water evaporates. Pure distilled water would be ideal since there would be no residue to periodically clean, but at the scale they need it, they basically have to use lightly filtered river water as far as I know.

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