Shell’s Liquid Cooling Fluid to Meet AI Data Centre Demands

Eager to embrace data centre cooling, Shell has launched its Shell DLC Fluid S3 solution, a cutting-edge Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) solution designed to meet the demands of high-performance computing and AI.

The offering consists of a propylene glycol-based fluid, which complements Shell’s existing immersion cooling fluid portfolio. It hopes to offer excellent heat transfer performance, as Shell seeks to continue its leadership in the data centre liquid cooling market. 

“With Shell DLC Fluid S3, Shell now offers both direct-to-chip and full immersion cooling solutions, and we’re not just keeping data centres cool in the age of AI — we’re powering the future of digital infrastructure,” says Aysun Akik, VP New Business Development and Global Key Accounts at Shell Lubricants. 

“We are continuing our commitment to innovation that delivers on performance, sustainability, and reliability to support our customers’ goals.”

Turning down the heat in the data centre

Many traditional lubricant companies have now pivoted to supporting data centre liquid cooling solutions, particularly as AI becomes increasingly popular across the market. This is because as data centres grow more powerful, traditional air-cooling is struggling to keep up with the increased heat generated by AI and HPC workloads.

DLC fluids are able to confront this heat and target high heat load components to ensure densely packed server racks can continue to operate at optimal temperatures.

By directly cooling high-performance components like Central Processing Units (CPUs) and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), DLC fluids can improve Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) by up to 27%, Shell says, in comparison with the power usage effectiveness (PUE) of air-cooling and reduce the need for energy-consuming air conditioning. 

Shell DLC Fluid S3 also meets all Open Compute Project (OCP) PG25 coolant specifications, according to the company, including standards for material compatibility. It also helps to protect the manufacturer’s warranty as there is no direct contact with the microprocessor.

Akik continues: “Our growing range of advanced liquid cooling solutions is designed to meet the diverse needs of modern data centres both today, and tomorrow – and are backed by the strength of Shell’s global footprint, supply chain and five technology development hubs around the globe.”

Driving change in data centre cooling

Immersion cooling fluids are dielectric, which means they do not conduct electricity and do not corrode the equipment, making it safe to submerge electrical equipment in them.

By transferring heat more efficiently than many air-cooling techniques, immersion cooling fluids can support overclocking and increase CPU speeds by up to 40%, according to Shell.

A recent survey by Castrol highlighted that experts believe the data centre industry must adopt immersion cooling within the next three years to continue seeing improvements to performance.

The company says that those who fail to do this risk falling behind competitors – which is risky during a time where AI demand continues to place heavy demands on data centres.

Shell states that its immersion cooling solutions lead to more efficient operations, stating on its website: “With no need for coolers, chillers, fans or evaporative cooling systems, immersion cooling fluids can help businesses cut the floor space needed to host their computing equipment by up to 80%.”

Likewise, it states the technology can unlock greater energy efficiency, given that they almost eliminate the need for power-hungry air-based cooing systems. 

This ultimately reduces emissions across the data centre and enables operators to move towards more future-proof operations.

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