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Google Cools Data Center With Bathroom Water
judgecorp writes "Google is cooling its data center in Douglas County, Georgia, using 'recycled' water that has been through the bathtubs and toilets of the surrounding community. So called 'grey' water is perfectly adequate for the data center's cooling system which relies on evaporation (the wet T-shirt effect), says Google."
does not have the electrolytes data centers crave.
I...I am not even sure what say to that...
Palm trees and 8
(rimshot)
Answer: They filtered to MSql databases.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
Apparently evaporation is the tendency for young women on spring break to get drunk and engage in civil disobedience of public indecency laws. Somehow, this is related to cooling.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
"Graywater" is water that does not contain human waste, but has been used for other purposes and isn't fit for drinking.
"Blackwater" is sewage water containing human waste (and easily confused with the mercenary business formerly owned by Erik Prince).
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Engineers have been considering approaches like this for ages. It's good to see it being put into practice.
As best I can tell, one of the biggest hurdles is local waste-handling laws. When we had a local drought a few years ago, we were saving wash water to put on our outdoor plants -- but that was a violation of local policy, because cooties from your dirty clothes might get into The Environment, contaminating all the bird and squirrel and cat and dog waste that's already there.
I'm sure Google's treatment policies have satisfied the local authorities, and if they're proceeding with the project, I'm sure they've found a way that's cost-effective.
I am afraid that my opinion of the IQ of the average /. reader just dropped an infinitesimal amount.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
The pipes that carry water to the systems would likely not exist.
Rather, like most cooling systems, the water is likely used to cool a heat exchanger, which in turn cools air that's blown into the server rooms. If a pipe gets clogged (which is unlikely, since the pipes have little reason to be as small as household ones), that heat exchanger just won't be as cold for a while.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Kirk: The cooling system to the warp drive is down again Scotty. How soon can you fix it?
Scotty: Ach Jim, I'm a warp drive engineer, not a plumber....
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I'm no potty expert, but I thought that water that is output from a toilet is called black water, water collected from the bathtub, and kitchen are called grey water, and what they are actually using is called treated water.
Am I just behind the times on the terminology or is the article's writer just being sloppy?
Pooping in the sink,
pooping in the sink,
I'm clogging up their coolers
'cause I'm pooping in the sink!
Shower, bathroom sink, maybe clothes washer - not toilet.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
They need to stop the free soda and lemonade bar.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"Google has just won first place in a wet t-shirt contest" was all I read. I don't think that was even written anywhere.
What comes from toilets is 'black water', but 'grey water'. Grey comes from showers, washing machines, etc. It's specifically that which has been used, but has a low risk of pathogens in it.
From the article, it sounds like they're using a blend of the two ... but they never linked to the March 15th Jim Brown blog post. From reading his blog, he states, "We worked with the WSA to build a side-stream plant about five miles west of our data center that diverts up to 30 percent of the water that would have gone back into the river", while the article linked to states "about 30 percent of the water is diverted from the WSA system".
The article makes it sound like they're getting the water *before* it would have been cleaned by the water treatment plant ... from the blog post, I'd say it's after it's been treated, and getting it before it would have been sent back to the river. So it's treated wastewater, which would've already gone through some sort of system to remove pathogens.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
I think that's error 002.
Usually "gray" water is water from showers, sinks, etc. -- everything but toilets. Water from toilets, including human wastes, is called "black" water. Some systems keep these separate, although most municipal systems (including, it appears, Douglas County, Georgia) mix them together. So this water starts out as "black", but according to TFA, it's partially cleaned up before being sent to the data center. Apparently it's treated enough to be called "gray", but still isn't potable. Then Google finishes the water treatment and releases the result into the river which is where it would have gone after the county treatment center anyway.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
OT but possibly of interest: the daughter of a friend of ours studied environmental biology at university. Her mother wondered what use it could possibly be. As a researcher into water treatment, she is now into her second paid postgraduate placement with the prospect of a very well paid international job at the end of it. Oil may be sexier, but water is actually the more important resource.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Garbage in, Garbage out?
I cool my servers with the frost piss
Let me guess.
The servers are all going to overheat on Seis de Mayo. All the spicy food the day before will be warming up the cooling water.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
until the shit hits the fan...
They're not using greywater. Greywater is untreated non-human-waste water, like from sinks and showers. Google is using the water which has already been treated by the waste water treatment plant and would otherwise be delivered back to a river. It's not pure enough to drink, but it isn't bathwater. It's purity is somewhere in between tap water and river water, with almost zero "floaties".
But yay poop jokes. Who knew /. had so many 4th graders?
grey water does not have toilet water in it, that's called black water, and should be completely different from grey water.
My g/f's from Japan and when we went to visit recently I noticed a lot of homes had toilets with a sink built into the top of the toilet tank. When you flushed, the water to fill the tank came out a faucet and you could wash your hands with it. Not only recycles but saves room in a 1/2 bath... a simple little thing we should see more of here in the states. As an example...
Flush the queue!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The summary (and Google) are being misleading here. This is treated sewage that would have been otherwise dumped in the local river - thus it is almost drinkable, and almost certainly cleaner than the river water itself. "Greywater" usually describes untreated sewage from non-toilet sources (showers, sinks, dishwashers, clothes washers).
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Correct, but the somewhat interesting part is that Google built their own wastewater treatment plant to supply the data center with coolant.
Sounds like a pretty crappy design to me.
Just another ignorant American.
Um, why? Why would you want to intentionally contaminate a water source? Besides being all kinds of illegal (federal crime under the clean water act for starters, if not seen as terrorism for messing with a water treatment plant), it's also highly unethical. Google is trying to be a good environmental citizen by making use of grey water instead of requiring fully treated water which requires significantly more energy and chemical usage, what possible reason could you have for trying to dissuade this behavior?
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
It makes me feel like quite erroneously I've done something for the environment.
FTFY.
Clothes washers are somewhere between grey and black.
Fun experiment:
Create a color gradient between "grey" and "black". Then pick a color in between them. What would you call this new color?
Does the metaphor of "grey water" make more sense now?
Other articles have reported that Google built a primary treatment plant to supply the data center as well. For example: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/google-flushes-heat-from-data-center-with-toilet-water.ars
I might have increased my carbon footprint a little bit by doing that, but I offset it by using a gas grill instead of charcoal, so i'm carbon neutral.
Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands. Greywater differs from water from the toilets which is designated sewage or blackwater to indicate it contains human waste.Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater
Reclaimed water or recycled water, is former wastewater (sewage) that is treated to remove solids and certain impurities, and used in sustainable landscaping irrigation or to recharge groundwater aquifers. The purpose of these processes is sustainability and water conservation, rather than discharging the treated water to surface waters such as rivers and oceans. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaimed_water
Keep the Classic Slashdot.
The shower water could have been redirected to flush the toilets (which is a common use for grey water), and he may be exceedingly poor at communicating this fact. Alternatively, he may be a complete moron.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I agree, it is usually the FEELING that matters when it comes to these sort of things. This is the same reason people still buy Prii (plural of prius http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/21/toyota-decrees-the-plural-of-prius-is-prii-your-latin-teach/).
-g
Facts don't matter. It's the feeling that matters.
I think you are perfect for a career opportunity with the TSA!!!
It depends on the plant. I don't have one of these systems, although I had a neighbor with one. He didn't seem to have issues. Here's an article that talks about gray water and plants: How does detergent in gray water affect landscape plants? While i was looking for that on I also found another that goes into local water codes in DFW area that pertain: City rules on gray water around Dallas-Fort Worth Obviously, YMMV, but gives an idea of some of the regulations.
I can't really see retrofitting something like this being very cost effective unless you garden in Arizona.