LU-VE Evaporators to Support 1.5MW Transcritical CO₂ Cooling System for Spanish Data Center

Italian air heat exchanger manufacturer LU-VE Group has supplied evaporators for a 1.5MW (426.5TR) transcritical CO₂ (R744) system to cool a 1,000m² (10,760ft²) data center in Paterna, Spain.

“This is the first time in Spain, and among the earliest in the world, that [a CO₂] natural refrigerant has been employed for a large-scale data center,” LU-VE said, adding that it specifically developed the evaporators for the project.

“This is the first time in Spain, and among the earliest in the world, that [a CO₂] natural refrigerant has been employed for a large-scale data center.”

LU-VE

The details: CO₂ systems, integrated with geothermal fields in the Valencian region, cool the data center equipment while supplying recovered waste heat to the local district heating network.

• LU-VE supplied 34 evaporators, 64 dual-airflow evaporators and four angular air coolers, with the industrial air coolers designed for medium- and high-temperature CO₂ applications.
• The systems extract hot air generated by the data center and direct cooled airflow toward the IT equipment racks.
• “Powering the system with the geothermal field will help maintain CO₂ at its most efficient temperature during the hottest months,” LU-VE said.

Mission-critical: The new Paterna Táctica Business Park facility ‒ developed by Kumo Networks, a subsidiary of El Corte Inglés ‒ meets Tier-IV standards for continuous data center operation.

• With fault-tolerant infrastructure and redundant components, the facility operates 99.995% of the time, with a maximum downtime of 26.6 minutes a year, according to LU-VE.

Other news: LU-VE US recently expanded its Jacksonville, Texas, facility from 70,000ft² (6,500m²) to 290,000ft² (27,000m²), allowing it to produce all of its CO₂ outdoor units in the U.S., including gas coolers, condensers and dry coolers, according to Tommaso Scavone, Senior Sales Manager for North America.

• In March, the company produced its first ventilated unit in the expanded facility.
• “LU-VE US has officially begun production of its first customer order, confirming immediate demand and strong confidence in the U.S. market,” the company said.
• The manufacturer’s experience with CO₂ dates back to 2004, when it supplied air heat exchangers for an experimental supermarket transcritical CO₂ refrigeration system in Wettingen, Switzerland.

Future-proof solutions: Amid rapid global growth in data center construction, ATMOsphere, publisher of NaturalRefrigerants.com, assessed manufacturing capabilities in its first-ever Clean Cooling for Data Centers 2025 report.

• Mechanical cooling technology using natural refrigerants includes chillers using propane (R290), CO₂ and ammonia (R717) as well as CO₂ CRAC (computer room air conditioner) units.
• High-temperature heat pumps, including those using hydrocarbons, can also be used to provide server cooling and for the reuse of waste heat in district heating networks.