[Tech Analysis] Improving Data Center Cooling Water Efficiency (WUE): A Hybrid Water Treatment Strategy Based on Electrooxidation

With the rapid growth of AI data centers increasing the thermal density of GPU clusters, managing WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness), the efficiency metric for cooling water consumption, has emerged as a key sustainability indicator.

Existing chemical-based water treatment has limits in raising the water's concentration ratio (CoC), making it difficult to reduce makeup water consumption. In contrast, Electrooxidation technology generates powerful oxidizing radicals by passing electric current directly through water, enabling biofilm decomposition and scale inhibition without chemicals.

The hybrid water treatment system consists of the following 3 stages:

• Pre-treatment stage: Reduces the load on the electrooxidation cell through mechanical filtration
• Electrooxidation cell: Uses inert metal oxide electrodes to control contamination load in real time
• Post-treatment stage: Meets sanitation standards through UV irradiation and residual chlorine monitoring

Applying this technology can raise the CoC from the existing 3-5 level to 7-10 level, and through this, WUE can be improved by up to 40%, with the expected effect of lowering the carbon footprint.