Cryptocurrency mining heat generation to be incorporated with greenhouses
UnitedCorp's BlockchainDome Passive Cooling Ground-Coupled Heat-Exchanger technology uses Canadian well and chimney effect principles combined with a technique for utilizing proprietary technology Negative Air Pressure Mining Rig docking stations. This process takes surface air and cools it naturally without electricity via a subterranean heat exchange system. The cool air is then heated as it cools cryptocurrency mining rigs and this heat can be used for other purposes.
Commercial greenhouses in cooler climates like in the Province of Quebec typically require a significant amount of thermal energy to supplement daytime solar energy, particularly during the period of September to May and many older greenhouses utilize inefficient heating systems for this purpose. Coupled with the increasing cost of electricity, greenhouse operators look to innovative solutions to meet their heating needs. As with any data center operation, cryptocurrency mines generate a lot of heat and this heat is either wasted through ventilation into the atmosphere or cooled through air conditioning which is both expensive and inefficient. Both ways of dealing with this heat are a waste of a valuable economic resource and do not support principles of sustainable development.
UnitedCorp's technology will use the heat from cryptocurrency mining to support large scale greenhouse agricultural operations through the BlockchainDome heat generation system which can keep greenhouses as 20oC year round. This represents a simple design solution compared to various alternatives whereby the cost of generating this heat from a single source is shared between multiple use cases. UnitedCorp believes this "Heat Campus" approach for heat generation and utilization is the future for these industries and any other industry that can make use of low cost heat and the long term goal is to get as close to zero waste as possible.
UnitedCorp believes this is both good economically and allows businesses to "green" their operations by significantly reducing the amount of electricity the combined operations require from the grid.
Cryptocurrency operations have suffered recently due to increased costs of operations in some areas, high fluctuations in the value of these currencies and many new entrants into the mining sphere. As a result, some operations are now working at or around breakeven.
The BlockchainDome technology represents an innovative solution for large scale Bitcoin mining as it addresses the most important cost factors being electricity for the miners, electricity for cooling and overheating of equipment which leads to failure of reduced efficiency and equipment failure is a significant cost to the industry.
In the major bitcoin mining centers of China which host many of the largest "mining pools" in the world, miners can access very cheap electricity which is produced by hydropower. In order to be competitive operations outside China must be able to access electricity below US 4 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). The cost of electricity in a BlockchainDome is approximately US 3 cents per kWh excluding demand charge and there is no additional energy cost associated with cooling and ventilation as these are dealt with through the Canadian well technology.
Blockchain Domes
The UnitedCorp BlockchainDomes are designed for large scale ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit chip) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) mining operations where efficiency and low cost operations are a priority. The BlockchainDomes are particularly well suited for situations where rapid cluster deployment is required as they can be erected and commissioned in a matter of weeks rather than up to a year using the traditional "Bricks and Mortar" approach. UnitedCorp believes that the combination of low cost of operation, rapid deployment and low capital cost will result in BlockchainDomes providing one of the lowest overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in the mining industry and the most efficient cooling solution for high density power mining operation.
The BlockchainDomes utilize a proprietary passive cooling ground-coupled heat-exchanger technology providing them with a highly efficient cooling solution for high-density mining operations which contain some of the hottest running computers in the world. Operational limitations are often encountered in mining operations with inadequate cooling as chips heat from the heavy processing required for mining causing a protective throttling back of 5-25% processing power to keep the systems from overheating. This throttling back reduces the efficiency of the operation and therefore reduced mining output. While active cooling through air conditioning and power venting are used in traditional bricks and mortar mines facilities, this adds significantly to the cost of operations and reduces their profitability.
2,700 feet of subterranean
The BlockchainDomes utilize some 2,700 feet of subterranean 24 inch diameter PEHD conduits installed 8 feet below grade which extend away from the dome on each side for a total of 17,000 cubic feet of air intake and are extendable if required. Filtered surface air is drawn into the conduits as a result of the negative pressure which is created within rig docking station and from the overall chimney effect within the dome. The conduits are designed with a corrugated external surface to provide enhanced surface for thermal transfer with the ground, and a smooth internal surface for better laminar air flow and reduced air turbulence.
Warm surface air passing through the conduits is cooled naturally to 55 degrees Fahrenheit (the year round ground temperature) over the length of the pipe run as a result of solid-to-air and air-to-air heat exchange. The air then flows to the underside of the mining rigs which are encased in sealed mining rig docking station. The negative dome pressure is created through a combination of the heat rising from the mining rigs (the "chimney effect"), the server cooling fans and the heat exhaust ducts at the apex of the dome connected to greenhouse located beside the dome.
BlockchainDomes are designed specifically to keep the heat generating processors at an optimal temperature through passive cooling. This includes an emphasis on laminar flow to reduce turbulence and an air path which reduces resistance. One of the shortcomings of most active cooling systems is that they use horizontal air flows which are less effective at cooling due to the inefficient flow of air. In addition, the typical stacking configuration used for the servers means that servers on upper racks receive hot air from servers in lower racks.
All mining rig computer equipment inside the BlockchainDomes is installed on individual vertical pipes which are connected to the Canadian wells. By using negative air pressure mining rig docking stations, vertical air flow from the intake pipes brings cool air from the ground well intakes to the underside of the docking station and maintains the direct vertical nature of air movement direction inside the dome.
Each dome naturally exhausts more than 200,000 CFM of warm air through exhaust ducts and does not require any air conditioning or electro-mechanical cooling or ventilation system.
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