Liquid-cooled data centers are starting to see issues with water-based coolants becoming contaminated and degrading nearby infrastructure. "Normally it's a water-based fluid with some sort of mixture of either ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. You're seeing a big shift toward safer fluids — propylene glycol is preferred, since it's less toxic." "A bunch of different things can happen in the system. You see a lot of basic infrastructure wear. So when your pumps and seals wear, all of that stuff starts to contaminate the liquid itself." "What also happens is the more heat [there is], the more the fluid starts to break down. So you go from this very nice, high concentration of glycol to water." "Then that starts to degrade and you start to get biogrowth, and other crap that gets in there. And that starts to eat your chips and sit in your pipes." @founderlaberge explains:
