Powerful cooling solutions for next-generation data centers

The customer: Infosys Technologies Ltd., a global leader in next-generation digital services and a top 100 brand for 2025, headquartered in Bangalore, India.

The challenge: Build multiple cost-effective, high-efficiency data center cooling solutions for Infosys locations, which can resist fouling, even when utilizing water from cooling towers.

The solution: Project design lead, Schneider Electric, trusted SWEP BPHEs to deliver a powerful, sustainable solution.

The heat exchangers: SWEP B439 units with 4” ports and SWEP B649 units with 6” ports were used in unique cooling solutions in several locations.

The results: Reduced costs, improved efficiency, and an improved sustainability profile.

Large data centres need powerful cooling solutions

Infosys believes they have a responsibility to more than just their business. They consider their commitment to ethical business practices, in all interactions, key to their long-term relationships with clients, partners and employees. With this in mind, in 1996, they established The Infosys Foundation to support underprivileged groups in the communities where they operate. The Infosys Foundation is dedicated to empowering women, enhancing human potential, improving access to healthcare and education, and advancing environmental sustainability. The company’s decision to build a series of energy-saving, environmentally-friendly cooling solutions for their data centers is just one example of Infosys turning their ideal of building a better world into concrete action.

The role of SWEP brazed plate heat exchangers

In cooperation with the design team at Schneider Electric, Infosys developed several new solutions for their data center cooling applications, using SWEP B439 and B649 brazed plate heat exchangers to isolate the primary and secondary cooling sources.

Water from a cooling tower, the primary source, is fed into cooling coils that absorb heat from critical IT equipment. This cooling-tower water is often dirty, containing contaminants that make it undesirable to use inside the clean data center. To solve this problem, a SWEP BPHE was installed as a “loop breaker.” In the second circuit, facility water, which is clean, was pumped into the data center cooling coil.

A SWEP B439 installation.

Traditionally, shell-and-tube or gasketed plate heat exchangers (GPHE), which can be opened and cleaned at regular intervals, used in applications like this. In this case however, compact, robust SWEP BPHEs were highly successful, utilizing cooling tower water while with it's turbulent flow also resisting scaling and fouling, without a reduction in functional lifespan. And of course, BPHEs offer close temperature approaches, delivering significantly more efficient heat transfer.

One project developed into 4 more projects with installation of BPHE between 2016 to 2020 and the BPHE size was upgraded to multiple units of B649 with 6”ports and 350 m3/h flow each. All units are running without any problems since then and Infosys have seen significant improvement in performance and savings.

Why choose SWEP?

Schneider Electric opted for SWEP brazed plate heat exchangers due to their impressive energy efficiency and reliable technical support. “On the first project, we selected SWEP based on the parameters specified on the selection sheet the sales executive provided” says Infosys. After the installation of the SWEP B439 with 4” ports, we knew that the design parameters were in line with the selection and that their efficiency meets our requirements.”

Infosys saw a significant improvement in performance and savings and decided to install SWEP brazed plate heat exchangers in four additional projects. For the 3rd project, in Hyderabad, the system was upgraded to include multiple SWEP B649 units, each with 6” ports and 350 m³/h flow. According to an Infosys spokesperson, “The Hyderabad campus project is our most energy-efficient data center and the performance of the heat exchangers plays a major role in this efficiency.”

SWEP B649 with 6”ports and 350 m³/h flow installed in the 3rd project, located in Hyderabad campus.

More about Infosys

Infosys Technologies was founded in 1981, with just $250 USD of capital. Over the past 40 years, they have grown their business into a $19.3 billion USD company (FY25 revenues). Today, Infosys is a NYSE-listed global consulting and IT services company with more than 323K employees and clients in more than 50 countries. As a global leader in next-generation services, Infosys offers strategic consulting and operational leadership that helps enterprises thrive in a changing world. They were the first Indian IT Company to be listed on the NASDAQ.