Carbice CEO: Customising Cooling Solutions for Data Centres

As the power demands of data centres only continue to surge, intensified sustainable solutions will only become more critical as we move into 2025.

To confront this, Dr Baratunde Cola, CEO and founder of Carbice Corporation, is working to transform thermal management in the wider data centre industry through groundbreaking nanotechnology. Based in the US, the company is working on complex sustainable solutions to protect electrical infrastructure from overheating across multiple sectors, including data centres.

He explains how Carbice’s thermal solutions are aiming to provide advances to data centres, suggesting that customised cooling solutions can ultimately lead to longer hardwave lifespan, reduced water consumption and improved system reliability. 

Please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at Carbice

My name is Baratunde Cola and I am the CEO and founder of Carbice, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that develops scalable interface solutions to protect semiconductors and electrical components from overheating in any physical environment. 

I received my bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Vanderbilt University and my doctorate from Purdue University, all in mechanical engineering. I've since invented more than 30 patents and published numerous highly cited papers related to energy transfer and nanotechnology in publications including Nature Nanotechnology, and the Journal of Applied Physics. 

In 2017, I was named the top scientist or engineer in the United States of America under 35 years old by the National Science Foundation. I’m an award-winning public speaker and frequent keynote presenter.  

Tell us about Carbice and the services it offers.

Leveraging aligned carbon nanotube technology, Carbice simulates, manufactures and implements its scalable interface solutions to protect all electronics from heat for partners across the automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace and defence, data centre, networking and energy systems sectors. 

Compared to conventional materials solutions, Carbice’s sustainably manufactured, reliable, easy-to-use and affordable interface solutions enable strong system performance for semiconductors and electrical components. 

Carbice also provides an added layer of protection to combat increasing power demands and prevent system failure in any physical environment. It is the only available solution today that can directly decarbonise interface solutions. 

Tell us about Carbice’s sustainable cooling solutions.

Carbice partners with companies in the data industry to develop scalable interface solutions that drive performance, protect data centres from overheating and prevent hardware damage, data loss and system failure - without sacrificing affordability and ease. 

Leveraging aligned carbon nanotube technology (CNTs) made from sequestering waste carbon gas, Carbice’s easy-to-deploy, affordable pad solution eliminates the risk of excessive heat in data centres, lengthens the lifespan of hardware, and prevents system failure. 

How can sustainable thermal management solutions expedite the construction of data centres?

A large data centre can use up to 5 million gallons of water daily—as much as a town of 50,000 people. Facilities can consume water on-site to dissipate heat generated by IT equipment, leading to extremely high levels of consumption. 

By turning to sustainable thermal management solutions, data centres can not only operate more efficiently but can also be constructed much more efficiently, given that the lead time to get conventional cooling systems is five times longer than it was just a few years ago. 

Goldman Sachs Research estimates that data centre power demand will grow 160% by 2030. 

To meet skyrocketing demand while prioritising our planet, sustainable thermal management solutions are paramount.

What are some of the benefits of customised cooling solutions for data centres?

Customers across all industries typically use the same basic thermal interface solutions without much consideration for the scale and needs of specific sectors like data centres. Most material providers are selling thermal paste that is only differentiated by the type and amount of conductive particle fillers. 

However, thermal paste can see a failure event at around six months due to filler separation and dry out, with temperatures spiking well above the recommended range up to 100ºC. 

Engineers have found ways to live with the limitations of thermal paste with costly tricks like laser etching of heat sinks, dynamic throttling, and ultimately re-pasting. By prioritising sustainability and new science, solutions can be implemented that match the needs of data centres specifically, where power densities are very high and the work loads are dynamic, adding unusual mechanical stress to the interface. 

What you get is a more holistic and long-lasting approach to data centre cooling compared to traditional methods. 

How can nanotechnology-based cooling solutions minimise the risk of hardware damage, data loss and system failure due to overheating?

Aligned carbon nanotube technology (CNTs) are among the most thermally conductive structures that exist. At the nanoscale, a dense array of nanostructures bonded to both sides of an aluminium substrate move like hairs on a paintbrush, filling in the topology of a surface like a liquid but with the benefits of a solid. 

This structure has very unique, almost magical mechanical behaviour that prevents the interface from experiencing high levels of stress when the hardware heats up, which is a natural part of the operation of electronics. 

This allows the interface to stay together (not crack up) compared to other methods and continue to conduct heat away from the hardware, which benefit data centres by eliminating the risk of excessive heat, lengthening the lifespan of hardware, and preventing system failure. 

Looking ahead, what does the next 12 months hold for Carbice?

In the next 12 months, Carbice will expand its partnerships with leaders in the automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace and defence, data centre, networking and energy systems sectors as the company makes strides in its mission to create a world where all electronics — from the phone in your pocket to the satellite orbiting in space — are protected from overheating.  

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