About MIVOLT

M&I Materials is an independent, privately owned British company committed to developing specialised materials for challenging applications, and whose roots can be traced back to 1901.

Having started out manufacturing ‘Micanite’ products for electrical insulation, the company has reinvested in its capabilities throughout its history, having engineered its first dielectric fluid range over 40 years ago. With the MIVOLT range of immersion cooling fluids, M&I Materials continues to grow its portfolio, building on a reputation for innovative products and superior technical knowledge.

Globally, M&I Materials supplies to a wide range of sectors, from power and aerospace, to nuclear medicine and high-performance motorsports. From its Trafford Park headquarters in the UK, M&I Materials exports its specialist products to 60+ countries around the globe. This is made possible by the company’s growing network of production facilities and commercial premises across the Americas, Africa, Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific.

MIVOLT fluids are liquid engineered to cool electrical systems safely, today and tomorrow. The readily biodegradable, dielectric characteristics of MIVOLT fluids provide the ultimate in protection. From workers, to the general public, to the environment – MIVOLT protects manufacturing processes, major assets, data and applications in a safe and responsible manner.

With MIVOLT fluids – performance is maximised, environmental impacts are minimised.

MIVOLT’s mission is to develop the safest, most effective dielectric fluids for direct immersion cooling – enabling the next generation of safer, greener, cooler electrical and electronic systems.

Single-phase liquid immersion cooling is a highly effective and efficient method for cooling electrical systems that has seen growing interest in recent years due to the increasing demand for power dense electrical components, such as batteries in electric vehicles, high performance computing servers in data centres and cryptomining, and other power electronic systems that generate large amounts of heat.

Single-phase liquid immersion cooling involves submerging the electrical components into an electrically non-conductive, thermally conductive liquid, such as dielectric fluid, mineral oil, or other non-toxic coolants.

Single-phase liquid immersion cooling provides several advantages over other cooling methods, such as air cooling and indirect liquid cooling. These advantages include enhanced thermal management, increased reliability, lower energy consumption, compact designs and lower costs.

One of the key benefits of single-phase liquid immersion cooling over and above other cooling methods is the capacity for better thermal management, more controlled regulation of the operating temperature of the components. The direct contact of the electrical components with the cooling liquid enables absorption and dissipation of heat much more effectively than air or other coolants.

This results in optimum temperatures and improved reliability of the components, which are critical in EV batteries and high-performance computing systems where heat can cause performance degradation, failure, or even damage to the components. In some cases, single-phase liquid immersion cooling can achieve cooling performance that is several times higher than traditional air-cooling methods.

Another advantage of single-phase liquid immersion cooling is its higher reliability. By removing the need for fans, air filters, and other components that can fail in traditional air-cooling systems, single-phase liquid immersion cooling eliminates many potential failure points and provides a more stable and consistent cooling environment for the components. This can result in improved system availability and uptime, longer component life, and lower maintenance costs.

Single-phase liquid immersion cooling also has lower energy consumption than traditional air-cooling methods. This is because air cooling requires significant amounts of energy to circulate air, drive fans, and maintain ambient air temperature. In contrast, single-phase liquid immersion cooling relies on convection to transfer heat from the components to the cooling liquid, which requires much less energy.

Additionally, single-phase liquid immersion cooling can reduce energy consumption by reducing the need for cooling systems that require large amounts of energy to maintain low temperatures, such as refrigeration-based cooling systems.

Single-phase liquid immersion cooling can reduce the need for refrigeration-based cooling systems, which can be expensive to install and maintain. The lower energy consumption and improved reliability of single-phase liquid immersion cooling can also result in lower operating costs over the long term.

In addition, single-phase liquid immersion cooling can also be more cost-effective than other cooling methods. This is because it eliminates the need for expensive air-cooling components such as fans, air filters, and ducts, as well as the energy consumption required to maintain them.

Finally, single-phase liquid immersion cooling is also a more environmentally friendly cooling method. Unlike air cooling, which can generate noise and release heat into the environment, single-phase liquid immersion cooling is a closed-loop system that operates silently. This further reduces the environmental impact of the cooling system and can be especially important in data centres and other critical systems where noise and heat emissions can be disruptive.

A Clear Choice

In conclusion, single-phase liquid immersion cooling offers several key benefits over other cooling methods, including higher thermal performance, higher reliability, lower energy consumption, and lower costs.

As a result, single-phase liquid immersion cooling is becoming an increasingly popular choice for cooling in high-performance applications where large amounts of heat are generated in operation. Whether you are looking to improve the performance, reliability, or efficiency of your cooling system, single-phase liquid immersion cooling is a highly effective and efficient solution that is worth considering.

In terms of direct liquid immersion cooling, esters have advantages compared to other chemistries used in immersion cooling for several reasons:

MIVOLT esters are single-phase liquids and have a higher boiling point compared to pure hydrocarbons for a given viscosity.  This characteristic lowers the risk of evolving vapour in operation or losing liquid through evaporation.

Esters are more thermally stable than pure hydrocarbons for a given viscosity and are less likely to break down or decompose when exposed to high temperatures. This stability helps to maintain the integrity of the fluid and reduces the risk of contamination, which can cause equipment failure.

Esters are less flammable than pure hydrocarbons for a given viscosity, reducing the risk of fire in critical electrical and electronic components. This is particularly important in environments like data centres, where there is a high concentration of electrical equipment, as a fire in this environment could result in significant damage to equipment and data as well as pose a serious threat to human life.

Unlike mineral oil and fluorinated liquids, esters are readily biodegradable, making their selection a more environmentally friendly choice.

This is important across the spectrum of applications; in data centres, the use of large quantities of fluid can have an impact on the environment; in electric vehicles, the potential for leaks arising from crashes means reduced environmental harm.

In terms of performance, esters have a higher thermal conductivity than mineral oils, meaning they are more effective at transferring heat from equipment to the cooling system.

This improved thermal conductivity results in more efficient cooling and helps to prevent equipment from overheating.

The use of esters for immersion cooling offers several advantages, including higher boiling point, enhanced thermal stability, reduced flammability and biodegradability, all at a lower viscosity than pure hydrocarbon-based liquids.

These advantages make esters the superior choice for use in battery systems and data centres, where efficient cooling and equipment protection are critical.