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Each Bitcoin transaction uses 4,200 gallons of water — enough to fill a swimming pool — and could potentially cause freshwater shortages (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

These data centers consume water for cooling systems

How does a data center consume water? Doesn't every liter that enters as freshwater leave as slightly warmer freshwater? What am I missing here?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Some of the water is evaporated so it doesn't leave as a liquid.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (2 children)

That's unlikely in a closed heat exchange system. Maybe some additional evaporation because the water is slightly warmer. But unless I'm missing something, it seems very misleading to suggest that a Bitcoin transaction uses 16 kilolitres because of evaporation. Napkin math, it would require about 10 megawatt/hours of energy to evaporate that much water (please correct me if I'm wrong). I'm not a Bitcoin fanboy, I just don't like BS.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Some water is used in humidifiers, there are also systems that use direct evaporative cooling where the water is eveporated to cool the hot air. There are probably other ways the water is lost.

AWS’ preferred cooling strategy for its data centers is known as direct evaporative cooling. In this system, hot air is pulled from outside and pushed through water-soaked cooling pads. The water evaporates, reducing the air’s temperature, and the cool air is then sent into the server rooms.

https://dgtlinfra.com/data-center-water-usage/

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Even if so, does evaporating cause it to exit the water cycle?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

These cooling systems remove and release all of the heat produced inside a data center – from servers, IT equipment, and mechanical infrastructure – into the outside environment, through a cooling tower that uses a water evaporation process.

It goes outside and eventually becomes rain.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

someone from a totally different thread mentioned that the water can't stay in the system because of whatever mineral stuff from the cooling pipe/anti-algae/anti-corrosive has to leave the system after certain cycles. So unless you have a treatment plant down stream it's not exactly "drinkable" freshwater. (and I doubt water regulation would allow that to happen.)

The consume here means that water is not usable for other application. How? I don't know, maybe it can be used for power wash?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It probably is still a lot easier to make potable than sewer water or even river water though. At lease you know exactly what contamination is in it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Water used to cool data centers is either consumed, meaning it evaporates into the atmosphere via the data center’s cooling towers or discharged, as industrial wastewater, usually to a local wastewater treatment plant.

It can't just be dumped into a river, has to go to a sewer treatment plant.

edit: They do recirculate it, but it eventually needs to be replaced. And some facilities have treatment plants on site, so doesn't necessarily needed to go to a sewer treatment plant.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I agree, it would eventually have it's own ecosystem around that water usage if "fresh" water or not really drinking water related use is required. At this point I think it's just cost related, cheaper just to dump into ocean.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Swamp coolers.

Fans blow over water to lower the pressure, causing evaporation to occur at room temperature.

Evaporating water absorbs heat from its surroundings without raising the water's temperature as it undergoes a phase change. It absorbs nearly 20 times more heat than it would from being heated from 50 degrees F to 100 degrees.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Aquafers do not refill as quickly as industry sucks them dry. It’s not just a Bitcoin or even a cloud computing problem, but the author is using this fact to make Bitcoin look even more ridiculous.