News Passive Salt Water Cooling Boosts CPU Performance by Almost 33%

[Admin]

A passive cooler using lithium bromide salt helped a test system deliver almost 33% better performance and stay cool for 10x longer, compared to alternatives.

Passive Salt Water Cooling Boosts CPU Performance by Almost 33% : Read more

 

[hotaru251]

"The system is self-refilling, too: it can recharge its cooling capacity by absorbing moisture from the air."

I do wonder how humid a place needs to be for that to occur as would for sure rule out very dry places like middle east i assume.

 

[Crazyy8]

It seems MonsterLabo has competition now

 

[Stevemeister]

Any type of cooling system leak with salt water and Pzzzfffttt

 

[helper800]

Any type of cooling system leak with salt water and Pzzzfffttt

I would be more worried about the potential corrosion rather than the shorts. Most electronics nowadays are pretty resilient to shorts, corrosion on the other hand is very hard on anything electronic.

 

[Stevemeister]

"The system is self-refilling, too: it can recharge its cooling capacity by absorbing moisture from the air."

I do wonder how humid a place needs to be for that to occur as would for sure rule out very dry places like middle east i assume.

Pretty humid and not too hot - even in the Caribbean Islands you can find salt drying beds

 

[Order 66]

I would be more worried about the potential corrosion rather than the shorts. Most electronics nowadays are pretty resilient to shorts, corrosion on the other hand is very hard on anything electronic.

My first thought was the potential corrosion as well. I couldn't imagine using this to fully cool the CPU and GPU in a system, having it leak and kill them both.

 

[Zforgetaboutit]

I'm suspicious of the high precision 32.65% claim. Why not 32%, or the even more honest 30%?

 

[Eximo]

Scientific results, the precision of their measurements.

I would not think leaks would be all that possible given the design. Essentially a membrane for water vapor to pass through, energetic water molecules. Surface tension plus the absorption of the salt should prevent liquid water from getting past the membrane.

The major sticking point is they are not talking 24/7 operation. They specifically give it a timeline, though they didn't provide the heat load itself, so don't be thinking desktop or laptop levels of power, probably a tiny heat source. So they rely on rest periods for the salt to reabsorb moisture.

Conceivably you could hook this up to a simple water supply, but at that point there are surely better options. (That or you need two chips/coolers, one to run and produce the moist air, and the other to absorb it while idle)

Or my silly solution, drippings off of a Peltier device.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Lithium Bromide is very corrosive. We used such machines on our submarines to keep things cool. Not at all pleasant if the plant should spring a leak. I can't see any consumer level device using it to have much of a lifespan.

 

[deesider]

Seems like it could be an excellent option for passive air-conditioning of a building - which generally only needs to be cooled during the daytime hours. The evaporative cooler on the roof could connect to the air-con system and would recharge with water overnight.

For data centres it would only make sense if they were in use only 30% of the time - which doesn't seem likely?

 

[Eximo]

Seems like it could be an excellent option for passive air-conditioning of a building - which generally only needs to be cooled during the daytime hours. The evaporative cooler on the roof could connect to the air-con system and would recharge with water overnight.

For data centres it would only make sense if they were in use only 30% of the time - which doesn't seem likely?

Triple the size of the system, valves to redirect the heat.

 

[punkncat]

For all my years in the aquaria industry and keeping salt water tanks for both fish and coral....this is a TERRIBLE idea.
I realize it is not the same salt. IIRC this is more like what is commonly used in hot tubs as a Chlorine alternative. Salt(s) have a way of creeping around fittings and such and will certainly turn into a bane.

 

[palladin9479]

My first thought was the potential corrosion as well. I couldn't imagine using this to fully cool the CPU and GPU in a system, having it leak and kill them both.

You wouldn't use this to do direct die cooling but instead to cool some sort of heat transport medium.

 

[USAFRet]

My first thought was the potential corrosion as well. I couldn't imagine using this to fully cool the CPU and GPU in a system, having it leak and kill them both.

Not everything seen here is aimed at the consumer space.

 

[vehekos]

I would be very nervous having lithium bromide or any salt inside a computer, since it is highly corrosive.

 

[Co BIY]

Basically evaporative cooling but in a salt medium that allows for the possible rehydration ? I wonder how much the salt medium changes the heat of evaporation.

Evaporative cooling is already widely used in arid climates but it has many downsides. One of them is placing a lot of water vapor into the interior conditioned air. High humidity inside buildings is bad.

If you were to remove the water vapor (usually done with a dehumidifier) then you would lose the recharge step. Dehumidifiers are essentially AC units so might as well cool directly.

I think a wet rag placed on any passive cooler would increase it's cooling power 10X

 

[dalauder]

"The system is self-refilling, too: it can recharge its cooling capacity by absorbing moisture from the air."

I do wonder how humid a place needs to be for that to occur as would for sure rule out very dry places like middle east i assume.

This self-refilling also matches self-defeating. Evaporation only works to cool well in low humidity. In high humidity, evaporation doesn't happen--so no cooling. But you'd need high humidity to absorb much moisture from the air. Either you'd need continuous water supplementation or a lot of down time.

The other side of that: It's not "passive" if you need to pump in NEW water.

 

[dalauder]

I would be more worried about the potential corrosion rather than the shorts. Most electronics nowadays are pretty resilient to shorts, corrosion on the other hand is very hard on anything electronic.

That was my first thought. Any salt water destroys metals through corrosion and anything softer through erosion.

 

[cyrusfox]

This has a lot of potential, my only concern is clogging of the membrane, but if the service life is sufficient, this might have legs and would be a boon.

 

[Scaht]

Requiring downtime to ensure better performance during uptime seems a bit convoluted, doesn't it? Is uptime no longer important?

 

[Matt_ogu812]

A passive cooler using lithium bromide salt helped a test system deliver almost 33% better performance and stay cool for 10x longer, compared to alternatives.

Passive Salt Water Cooling Boosts CPU Performance by Almost 33% : Read more

Does the ole saying 'if it sounds too good to be true it probably is' apply here?
Just asking.

 

[cyrusfox]

Does the ole saying 'if it sounds too good to be true it probably is' apply here?
Just asking.

Per my limited understanding it is functionally identical to a heatpipe, but a heatpipe is a completely enclosed system while this is an open exchange system. Water is shed during cooling and gained during recovery phases. It will require a fair bit of engineering to make it practical/usable but the principles are sound. There is more than enough moisture in the air and it is freely available, water vapor is pretty infiltrative so membranes are unlikely to clog. As long as the solution can be contained, have sufficient recovery vapor flow in, and the application is around operating temps for desorption , this could be a fantastic passive heat pumping system.

It really is going to depend on its operating temps and self regeneration capability.