China's new cooling system can touch sub-zero in seconds to save AI

Chinese researchers have developed a novel pressure-driven chemical cooling technique that can rapidly supercool a liquid medium to sub-zero temperatures within 30 seconds. Unlike traditional cooling methods that rely on continuous energy input such as fans or chilled water loops, this process uses the unusual solubility behavior of ammonium thiocyanate salt under pressure. When pressurized, a saturated salt solution forms, and upon sudden pressure release, the salt re-dissolves in a way that absorbs significant heat from the surroundings, causing a rapid temperature drop. This endothermic dissolution, enhanced by pressure control, offers a high cooling power burst ideal for managing sudden thermal spikes. This technology shows promise for energy-intensive AI data centers, which generate intense heat from GPUs and other hardware, often facing unpredictable heat surges during computationally demanding tasks. The rapid salt cooling process could act as a thermal buffer, reducing peak cooling loads and potentially lowering energy costs associated with traditional cooling systems that can consume 30-50% of a data center