Thermoeconomic and environmental feasibility of waste heat recovery of a data center using air source heat pump

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.061
• Publication Date: 2019-02-10T23:31:12Z
• Authors: Mahdi Deymi-Dasht...; Sajad Valipour-Na...
• Keywords: Payback period

Abstract Currently, the vast amount of heat generated by electronic equipment in the data canters is removed using high energy consumption mechanical systems. Hence, there is a good potential to use waste heat recovery systems for space heating purposes in order to reduce the energy consumption, energy cost as well as pollutant emissions. In present study, the feasibility of using the air source heat pump (ASHP), as a waste heat recovery system operating with different refrigerants, in a 54-racks data center in Mashhad city of Iran has been investigated to save the electrical energy consumption of the mechanical cooling as well as the natural gas fuel consumption of the adjoining office building with area of 416 m2. The energy-environmental-economic analysis results indicated that around 35000 m3/year natural gas saving, 20.8 MW h/year electrical energy saving, 121 tons/year CO2 emission reduction and 25000$/year cost saving can be achieved through using the proposed waste heat recovery system. Furthermore, the proposed system, with a payback period of 2.5 years, can improve the power usage effectiveness (PUE), energy reuse factor (ERF) and energy reuse effectiveness (ERE) of the data center.