Shell Immersion Coolant Solutions for Data Centers

Author: Punit, Global Technology Manager, Shell Lubricants Collection: 2025 OCP Global Summit - Expo Hall Sessions

Summary

Shell presents its single-phase immersion coolant portfolio for data center cooling, centered on the S3X grade -- a 3 centistokes synthetic hydrocarbon produced through Shell's gas-to-liquid (GTL) catalytic process. Natural gas feedstock is converted at Shell's refinery in Qatar into base fluids, which are then blended with additive packages at Shell's Houston facility. S3X has been the primary market grade for 7-8 years, is water-white and transparent, features a very high flash point for fire safety, and was certified under the Intel fluid certification program.

Shell operates its own 1.5 MW production data center ("Skybox") in Houston using S3X in GRC immersion tanks with AMD CPUs, demonstrating 30% reduction in energy consumption over 2 years of production operation. Fluid analysis over that period shows the only contaminant is phthalates leaching from power cord cables -- a known and benign phenomenon also observed in the Intel certification study. Shell offers "lunch and learn" sessions at the Skybox facility for groups of up to 20 people to see immersion technology in a brownfield (retrofitted from air) production environment.

Shell also introduced DLC-S3, a propylene glycol-based direct liquid cooling (DLC) coolant (25% propylene glycol with additive package and DI water) for the rapidly scaling direct-to-chip liquid cooling market. The product provides corrosion protection, freeze protection, heat transfer, and biostability. Shell is actively working with all three major chip manufacturers (Intel certification complete, AMD running for 2 years in own data center, Nvidia GPU testing in progress) and has developed a comprehensive material compatibility guide for OEM reference.