Los Alamos National Laboratory Reclaimed Water Usage for Data Centers: A Case Study

Abstract

Water is a valuable resource that is all too often ignored when thinking about sustainability and High-Performance Computing (HPC). Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) found a solution to eliminate the amount of potable water usage needed for cooling HPC facilities. The Sanitary Effluent Reclamation Facility (SERF) was constructed in 2013 with the main purpose of removing silica from water in Los Alamos, New Mexico, to increase the cycles of concentration for the HPC Complex. SERF enabled Los Alamos National Laboratory to remove silica, reclaim effluent from the wastewater treatment plant and reduce the usage of potable water for HPC cooling.