Patent Issued for Heat recovery from data center cooling system (USPTO 11439044): United Services Automobile Association

2022 SEP 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11439044, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Culbertson, II, William Preston (San Antonio, TX, US), Osterkamp, Bryan J. (New Braunfels, TX, US), Philbrick, Ashley Raine (San Antonio, TX, US), Post, Nathan Lee (San Antonio, TX, US), Russell, Ryan Thomas (San Antonio, TX, US), St. Martin, Courtney (Roswell, GA, US).

This patent was filed on October 3, 2019 and was published online on September 6, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Many businesses require large amounts of computing power and storage for data relating to customers. Banks of computers store data relating to customer purchases, such as model number; warrantee information; service requirements; values, beneficiary information, and distribution information, such as for insurance contracts. Insurance contracts also may require personal information, such as age and health information. Automobile insurance may require collection and maintenance of information relating to the vehicles insured, drivers’ safety records, and the like.

“Further, almost all types of business relationships require amounts owed and owing, contact information, credit and billing information. These categories of information must be maintained securely. Often, categories of information are kept separately from other categories to improve security. For example, credit card numbers typically are kept separately from other personally-identifiable information. The types of information that must be stored are myriad, and the number of entries for each type is large.

“Typically, this equipment is housed in a data center, often a building separate from other buildings. Modern data centers therefore often have large banks of computing units to accommodate manipulation of large amounts of data. Data centers also typically have large storage banks to store the data required to do service customers.

“Such equipment typically is maintained at essentially constant temperature in clean air essentially devoid of dust particles and other deleterious materials suspended in the air. Both liquid water and vapor are controlled to preclude shorting of electrical connections in the equipment.

“Such computer devices consume a significant amount of power and generate a significant amount of heat. At least a portion of the heat must be removed to avoid overheating the equipment.

“There is a need in the art for a system and method that addresses the shortcomings discussed above.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for recovering value from waste cooling air from a data center.

“In one aspect, the disclosure is directed to a system to create a dehydrating environment from the waste cooling air from a data center. The system comprises a drying room disposed above the data center, with at least one air duct placing the drying room in fluid communication with the data center. The air duct conveys waste cooling air from the data center into the drying room.

“The drying room includes an interior cavity configured to receive a moisture laden product. The drying room also includes a doorway configured to allow the moisture laden product to enter and exit the drying room. The drying room removes moisture from the moisture laden product by exposing the moisture laden product to the waste cooling air from the data center and conveys moisture laden air from the drying room to an air handling unit through a wet air return duct.

“In another aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a system to distribute waste cooling air from a data center. The system includes a reservoir tank configured to receive the waste cooling air from the data center. The reservoir tank includes an insulated wall that assists in maintaining a temperature within the reservoir tank and a reservoir tank blower configured to convey the waste cooling air from the data center into the reservoir tank and to pressurize the interior of the reservoir tank.

“The local tank is in fluid communication with the reservoir tank and in fluid communication with a blower via a hose. Pressurized waste cooling air from the data center is delivered from the local tank out of the blower when a blower valve is opened.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system to create a dehydrating environment from waste cooling air from a data center, the system comprising: a data center, the data center including at least one computer server rack being cooled by airflow from an air handling unit so as to create waste cooling air; a drying room disposed above the data center, at least one air duct placing the drying room in fluid communication with the data center, the at least one air duct conveying the waste cooling air from the data center into the drying room; the drying room including an interior cavity configured to receive a moisture laden product; the drying room including a doorway configured to allow the moisture laden product to enter and exit the drying room; wherein the drying room removes moisture from the moisture laden product by exposing the moisture laden product to the waste cooling air from the data center; the drying room including a wet air return duct conveying moisture laden air from the drying room to the air handling unit.

“2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a supplemental HVAC device disposed between the wet air return duct and the air handling unit; the supplemental HVAC device including an air filter and a dehumidifier therein.

“3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the drying room is insulated on a ceiling and on a lateral side thereof.

“4. The system according to claim 1, wherein air handling unit removes water from air passing through it in the form of condensate.

“5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one air duct is disposed in a ceiling of the data center; and the at least one air duct is disposed in a floor of the drying room.

“6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the wet air return duct includes a filter therein.

“7. A system to distribute waste cooling air from a data center, the system comprising: a data center, the data center including at least one computer server rack generating heat that is being cooled by airflow from an air handling unit so as to create waste cooling air; a reservoir tank configured to receive the waste cooling air from the data center, the reservoir tank including an insulated wall that assists in maintaining a temperature within the reservoir tank; the reservoir tank including a reservoir tank blower configured to convey the waste cooling air from the data center into the reservoir tank, and to pressurize an interior of the reservoir tank; the reservoir tank distributing the waste cooling air to at least one local tank, the local tank being located away from the reservoir tank, a connection placing the local tank in fluid communication with the reservoir tank; the local tank in fluid communication with a blower via a hose; wherein pressurized waste cooling air from the data center is delivered from the local tank out of the blower when a blower valve is opened.

“8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the reservoir tank includes a high heat capacity wall configured to help maintain an interior temperature of the reservoir tank.

“9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the insulated wall is disposed outwards of the high heat capacity wall.

“10. The system according to claim 7, wherein the reservoir tank includes a temperature sensor, and a bleeder valve; and wherein the system can open the bleeder valve to encourage introduction of additional waste cooling air from the data center if a sensed temperature by the temperature sensor falls below a predetermined temperature.

“11. The system according to claim 7, further including an outside air intake system, the outside air intake system including an air intake valve disposed upstream of an air handling unit; wherein the air intake valve opens to introduce outside air when a sensed pressure drops below a predetermined level.

“12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the outside air intake system includes an air filter.

“13. A method for distributing waste cooling air from a data center using an air delivery system, the method comprising: cooling at least one computer server rack that generates heat, the cooling being done by passing airflow from an air handling unit over the computer server rack so as to create waste cooling air; conveying the waste cooling air from the data center to a reservoir tank; pressurizing the waste cooling air in the reservoir tank; distributing the pressurized waste cooling air from the reservoir tank through a connection to at least one local tank separate from the reservoir tank; and delivering the pressurized waste cooling air from the local tank through a hose to a blower having a valve that delivers pressurized waste cooling air from the hose when the blower valve is open.

“14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising maintaining an interior temperature of the reservoir tank by providing the reservoir tank with at least one high heat capacity wall.

“15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising maintaining an interior temperature of the local tank by providing the local tank with at least one high heat capacity wall.

“16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising opening a bleeder valve in the reservoir tank to encourage introduction of additional waste cooling air from the data center if a temperature sensed by a temperature sensor falls below a predetermined temperature.

“17. The method according to claim 13, further comprising opening an air intake valve in an air intake system to introduce outside air when a sensed pressure drops below a predetermined level.

“18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising filtering the outside air from the outside air intake system.

“19. The method according to claim 13, further comprising immediately stopping air flow if the hose becomes disconnected.

“20. The method according to claim 13, further comprising closing at least one valve to isolate a portion of the air delivery system that malfunctions to protect the air quality in the data center.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Culbertson, II, William Preston. Heat recovery from data center cooling system. U.S. Patent Number 11439044, filed October 3, 2019, and published online on September 6, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11439044.PN.&OS=PN/11439044RS=PN/11439044

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