Another company looks to treated sewage as a water source.
APAC data center firm Bridge is to use treated wastewater (aka sewage) for its cooling.
“Bridge Data Centres (BDC) is proud to be the first data center in Johor, Malaysia, to repurpose treated effluent as reclaimed water for operational use — a forward-looking step aligned with our ESG commitments and long-term water sustainability goals,” the company said on LinkedIn this week.
Bridge said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Johor Special Water (JSW) and is collaborating with Indah Water Konsortium (IWK), JSW, and Permodalan Darul Ta’zim (PDT) on the project.
Though data centers typically reuse water by recirculating the same water through their cooling systems multiple times, it is often drawn from potable (drinkable) sources. As the water can collect bacteria and limescale, it is treated with chemicals, leaving it unsuitable for people to drink once it leaves the facility. Exactly how much drinkable water the data center industry uses is unclear, but estimated to be in the billions of gallons annually.
However, the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple are using wastewater at a number of their facilities - taking non-drinkable recycled water from treatment facilities and often returning it back to be re-treated again afterwards.
BDS currently has six data centers in operation or development across Malaysia.
The company operates two facilities in Cyberjaya with a third in development, and launched a data center outside Johor in 2022. It announced plans for the first 16MW building at its MY03 site in Kuala Lumpur’s Mranti Park in 2021 and announced an expansion last year.
