Data centers waste heat recovery technologies: Review and evaluation

Yueting Hao, Haojie Zhou, Tong Tian, Wei Zhang, Xin Zhou, Qingfei Shen, Tong Wu and Ji Li

Applied Energy, 2025, vol. 384, issue C, No S0306261925002193

Abstract: With a growing focus on energy-saving and emission-reduction efforts in data centers, waste heat recovery technology is urgently needed because of the high energy consumption in data centers. Considering the four-level architecture of data center energy efficiency management systems, a detailed review of waste heat flow in data centers and waste heat recovery technologies is conducted. To accurately calculate and compare the relative efficiency of different forms of waste heat recovery technologies, this work proposes a novel model based on exergy theory that first converts the waste heat recovery energy into the equivalent electrical energy as the basis for calculation. A new relative exergy efficiency indicator of waste heat recovery in term of the amount of equivalent electrical energy recovered from waste heat εre is then suggested and calculated for the comprehensive evaluation of currently available waste heat recovery technologies. The model can be used to evaluate system efficiency comprehensively. Meanwhile, it provides a reliable and feasible quantitative analysis for the selection and improvement of waste heat recovery systems, thus promoting data center energy management and carbon reduction.

Keywords: Data center; Waste heat recovery technology; Energy efficiency assessment; Exergy analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125489

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