Cooling Environments

The Cooling Environments Project is the OCP community focused on advanced data center cooling. High performance computing has long used liquid cooling as a cost-effective, efficient way to extract heat. As 5G, IoT, VR, CDN, and other latency-sensitive applications push data centers into regions where cooling is difficult, and as power densities rise, liquid cooling, specifically warm water cooling, becomes an effective alternative. The project focuses on five functional areas of the data center: cold plate, coolant distribution unit, immersion, door heat exchanger, and heat reuse.

Cooling Environments

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Steering Committee Representative

Steve Mills

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About This Project

High performance computing has used liquid cooling for many years, and these solutions have proven to be cost effective and efficient at heat extraction.

With the growth of 5G, IoT, VR, CDN, and latency-sensitive applications, data centers are being constructed in regions of the globe where cooling becomes quite a challenge — and increased power density introduces cooling challenges of its own. In these cases liquid cooling, and specifically warm water cooling, becomes an effective alternative for heat extraction.

Scope

The Cooling Environments Project focuses its efforts on five functional areas of the data center:

  • Cold Plate
  • Coolant Distribution Unit
  • Immersion
  • Door Heat Exchanger
  • Heat Reuse

OCP Academy

Free Training developed with the Cooling Environments community:

Liquid Cooing Technoogies Overview – 4-part course series
Cooling Fluids in DLC – single-phase selection, chemistry & maintenance
Two-Phase DLC – Efficiencies and Fluids

Resources

Disclaimer: Please do not submit any confidential information to the Project Community. All presentation materials, proposals, meeting minutes and/or supporting documents are published by OCP and are open to the public in accordance to OCP’s Bylaws and IP Policy. This can be found on the OCP OCP Policies page. If you have any questions please contact OCP.

This project is designed to address the increasing demand for data center cooling innovations, the scope of the Cooling Environments charter is to consolidate five existing Advanced Cooling Solutions (ACS) and Advanced Cooling Facilities (ACF) sub projects – ACS Immersion, ACS Cold Plate, ACS Door Heat Exchanger and Advanced Cooling Facilities and Heat Re-use. The motivation for the formation of this project stems from the increased need for synergies between data center facilities (DCF), ACS and ACF activities within OCP.

Documents

OCP Marketplace

Specifications and Design files

  • TBD

Recordings from Past Calls

Cooling Environments calendar

Related Details

Contributions

All project contributions

Sub-Projects

Cold Plate

The Cold Plate Sub-Project is part of the OCP Cooling Environments Project. Its primary goal is to drive standardization and enable an open ecosystem for direct liquid cooling in the industry. Collaborating across key industry players, the sub-project develops standardized interfaces, provides technical recommendations and guidelines across the ecosystem, and addresses implementation risks. It produces requirements, guidelines, specifications, best practices and products spanning the technology cooling system (TCS) from the cold plate to the CDU, including cold plates, tubing, manifolds, QDs and CDUs.

Coolant Distribution Unit

The Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) Sub-Project operates under the OCP Cooling Environments Project. The sub-project collaborates on the integration of Advanced Cooling Solutions (ACS) into data center facilities via liquid distribution. Participants develop solutions, guidance and reference designs that enable ACS deployment in both new and existing data centers. For those looking to learn more, the OCP Project Deschutes: Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) v1.0 eLearning course is available on OCP Academy. To get involved, become an OCP member and join the CDU Mailing List to take part in the sub-project's ongoing collaboration.

Cooling Technologies Testing

Cooling Technologies Testing is part of the OCP Cooling Environments Project, the OCP community focused on advanced data center cooling across cold plate, coolant distribution unit, immersion, door heat exchanger, and heat reuse. Details about this group’s mission, scope, leadership, and ways to get involved will be added in the near future.

Door Heat Exchanger

The Door Heat Exchanger (DHX) Sub-Project, part of OCP's Cooling Environments effort, develops, integrates, and standardizes Rear Door Heat Exchangers (RDHX) within the ORV3 Open Rack framework, using liquid cooling to manage the thermal load of high-density IT equipment. Key industry players collaborate on standardized interfaces, compatibility with existing infrastructure, and risk mitigation, publishing guidelines and specifications through white papers and presentations. Current workstreams cover RDHX interfaces for ORV3, aluminum heat exchanger integration, and air-assisted liquid cooling with sidecar units. The scope spans fluid compatibility, operational parameters, heat extraction metrics, system integration, and interface standardization for reliable, energy-efficient data center cooling.

Heat Reuse

The OCP Heat Reuse Sub-Project, part of the Cooling Environments Project, treats data center excess heat as an asset rather than a liability, since almost 100% of the energy used in a processor turns into heat. It suggests solutions that make heat reuse projects easier to implement, organized into three workstreams: reference designs for the technical needs of data centers pursuing heat reuse, economics covering costs and returns, and policies affecting the use of excess heat. Additional work includes a global heat reuse projects database and map and a heat reuse readiness self-assessment.

Immersion Cooling

The OCP Immersion Sub-Project, part of the OCP Cooling Environments Project, advances the development, adoption, and standardization of immersion cooling technologies across the data center industry. A global, volunteer-driven effort, it unites technology providers, end-users, researchers, and manufacturers to develop open specifications, reference designs, and best practices addressing thermal management, energy and water consumption, operational efficiency, and sustainability. Its scope spans technology definition and standardization, guidelines and requirements, hardware and component support, reference designs and interoperability, sustainability, community engagement and education, and collaborative alignment. A scalable governance structure of project leadership, a steering committee, technical committees, and support teams ensures transparency, collaboration, and quality across all outputs.