Data centers
All the water that will ever exist on earth already circulates among us, so it shouldn’t be used only once and then treated like waste.
One industry that is consuming large amounts of water? Data centers.
Data centers are a major consumer of water.
There is a gap between the finite nature of water and the ways it is dispensed as if it were an infinite resource. This gap becomes apparent through an increasing number of collapsing aquifers, disappearing rivers and contaminated lakes.
A growing industry
With the rise of artificial intelligence, data centers are one of the fastest growing industries in the world and they use high volumes of water to keep their systems cool. The vast majority of data centers draw from vital sources of water like rivers, aquifers or drinking water sources.
A hyperscale data center can draw as much as five million gallons a day, matching what is needed by a small town.
Using millions of gallons
Although cooling data centers requires considerable quantities of water, it does not need to be of drinking water quality. In Great Lakes states, data centers mostly source municipal drinking water for cooling purposes, and at volumes that can strain capacity and infrastructure.
These practices can leave insufficient amounts of water for agriculture, other industries or even human uses. Rather than introducing additional strains to already stressed water systems, data centers can lead the way in the recycling of water.
Water recycling
The Freshwater Lab seeks the reuse of municipal and industrial wastewater to meet the cooling demands of new and existing data center facilities, including the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronic Park (IQMP) and other facilities in the Great Lakes region.
We aim to reduce dependence on potable water, minimize energy needs and support sustainable economic growth.
Why recycle water?
Water recycling is a longstanding practice that is gaining momentum. Water reuse extends the benefits of the available water supply and contributes to water security, economic vitality, improved water quality, infrastructure resilience and ecological restoration.
BENEFITS OF WATER RECYCLING
The City of Big Infrastructure
When it comes to water infrastructure, Chicago likes to go big. Chicago boasts the world’s largest drinking water treatment plant, the world’s largest wastewater treatment plant and the world’s largest deep tunnel – a system of storing rain water in giant reservoirs and vast underground tunnels.
The next step for the City of Big Infrastructure is to build the world’s largest water recycling system. Chicago is ranked as the seventh-largest data center market in the Americas and 11th in the world.
The Freshwater Lab’s vision for water recycling matches well with Illinois’ plans for a cutting-edge quantum and microelectronic park on the former site of U.S. Steel.
These ambitious plans are perfectly suited for cooling systems that run on recycled water.
Quantum breakthroughs should be paired with advancement in water infrastructure.
Along with water reuse at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronic Park (IQMP), we seek to promote water recycling at data centers.
As a massive quantum computing campus is underway, NOW is the time to integrate a water reuse system. Retrofitting built systems is much more difficult and costly.
