Irish Grant Fuels Next-Gen Cooling for AI and Data Centers

DUBLIN, IRELAND – December 17, 2025 – A consortium led by the Irish-based HT Materials Science (HTMS) has secured a significant €2.3 million ($2.6 million) grant to develop the next generation of cooling technology, a critical advancement for energy-hungry sectors like artificial intelligence, data centers, and electric vehicles. The funding, awarded from Ireland's prestigious Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF), validates a crucial push towards solving one of the digital age's most pressing problems: heat.

The consortium, named DLCool, brings together HTMS, a specialist in advanced heat-transfer fluids, with academic powerhouse Dublin City University (DCU) and the innovative solid-state heat pump manufacturer Exergyn Ltd. This partnership aims to create revolutionary fluid additives for direct liquid cooling (DLC) systems, targeting the soaring thermal challenges that threaten to cap technological progress and strain energy grids worldwide.

Ireland's Innovation Engine Powers Green Tech

The grant is a strategic investment from the DTIF, a €500 million fund established under the Irish government's Project Ireland 2040 initiative. The fund is designed to de-risk ambitious, collaborative projects that can reshape markets and solve major societal challenges. By backing the DLCool consortium, the Irish government is not only fostering homegrown innovation but also positioning the country as a key player in the global green technology landscape.

The DTIF's portfolio includes groundbreaking projects in quantum computing, AI-driven healthcare, and sustainable agriculture. This latest award underscores a national focus on addressing climate obligations and driving digital transformation. The fund's mandate is to support collaborations between world-class research institutions and industry, aiming for commercial impact within three to seven years. The investment in DLCool aligns perfectly with this goal, targeting a market with explosive growth and a clear need for disruptive solutions.

"This grant advances a critical next phase in the development of heat transfer fluid technology," said Thomas Grizzetti, CEO of HTMS, in a statement. He highlighted the company's existing success with partners like Tabreed, Saudi Aramco, Ericsson, and Amazon, using their current technology to reduce cooling energy. "Now, with the support of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, and with our partners at DCU and Exergyn, we will continue advancing breakthrough technologies that will increase efficiency for an even broader range of next-generation industries."

The Escalating Demand for Advanced Cooling

The timing for this innovation could not be more critical. The global economy's shift towards AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and widespread electrification has created an unprecedented thermal management crisis. Traditional air-cooling methods are proving inadequate and inefficient for modern data centers, where rack power densities are skyrocketing past the 30 kW threshold.

Market analysts project the direct-to-chip liquid cooling market alone to surge from approximately $1.85 billion in 2024 to nearly $12 billion by 2034, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of over 20%. This demand is fueled by the intense heat generated by the powerful processors required for AI model training and big data analytics. Without more effective cooling, the operational cost and carbon footprint of these essential facilities will become unsustainable.

Direct liquid cooling, which brings coolant directly to hot components like CPUs and GPUs, offers a path forward. It is vastly more efficient than moving air, allowing for greater compute density, lower energy consumption, and reduced operational costs. The innovations promised by the DLCool consortium aim to make these systems even more effective, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in thermal management for data centers, electric vehicle batteries, and next-generation heat pumps.

A Consortium Tackling the Thermal Challenge

The strength of the DLCool project lies in the unique synergy of its partners. HT Materials Science, headquartered in Ireland with a global presence, has already established its credentials with Maxwell®, a drop-in fluid additive for conventional HVAC systems. The product, which suspends sub-micron particles of aluminum oxide in a base fluid, is reported to boost energy efficiency by up to 15% by enhancing heat transfer. The new grant allows the company to apply this nanotechnology expertise to the rapidly expanding direct liquid cooling market.

Supporting this effort is Dublin City University, which contributes deep academic and research capabilities in materials science, manufacturing processes, and thermal engineering. DCU's involvement provides the foundational research and characterization needed to develop and validate the new fluid additives.

Rounding out the trio is Exergyn Ltd., a pioneering firm in solid-state heating and cooling. Exergyn has developed a refrigerant-free technology using shape memory alloys that offers a cleaner, more efficient alternative to traditional vapor-compression systems. The company, itself a previous recipient of DTIF funding, brings critical expertise in heat pump technology, a key application area for the new cooling fluids. This collaboration creates a powerful ecosystem for turning laboratory breakthroughs into commercially viable products.

Nanotechnology at the Core of Efficiency

The core of the innovation lies in enhancing the thermal properties of cooling liquids at a microscopic level. By engineering and suspending specialized nanoparticles within a base fluid, the consortium plans to create a liquid that can absorb and transport heat far more effectively than water or glycol alone. This enhanced heat transfer capability is the key to unlocking new levels of performance and efficiency.

While HTMS has already proven this concept with Maxwell® in large-scale HVAC systems, applying it to the precise and demanding environments of direct-to-chip cooling and EV battery management presents a new set of challenges. The fluids must be stable, non-corrosive, and capable of flowing through the intricate microchannels of modern cold plates without causing blockages or degradation.

Success in this endeavor would place the consortium's technology at the forefront of a competitive landscape that includes industry giants like Schneider Electric and Vertiv, as well as specialized firms like CoolIT Systems and Asetek. While some competitors focus on immersion cooling—submerging entire servers in dielectric fluid—the DLCool project's focus on enhancing direct-to-chip fluids targets what is currently the largest and fastest-growing segment of the liquid cooling market. The development of these advanced fluids could provide a significant performance edge, further reducing the energy required to power the world's digital and electric future.