ATMOsphere report - Driving Data Center Efficiency: How Alfa Laval Turns Heat Into Opportunity

Alfa Laval is a global manufacturer of heat transfer, separation and fluid-handling solutions headquartered in Lund, Sweden. It was founded in 1883 and originally manufactured milk separators, with its first heat exchanger produced in 1938. Today, Alfa Laval has more than 30 manufacturing sites across the globe and 22,000 employees.¹ Its HVAC&R portfolio includes gasketed plate heat exchangers (GPHE) and brazed plate heat exchangers (BPHE).

The company has worked in the data center sector for 20 years, according to Anna Blomborg, Head of Data Centers at Alfa Laval. Since then the segment has grown in lockstep with the sector’s rapid expansion, Blomborg said, adding that “the outlook remains strong.”

The forecasts we’re seeing are extraordinary – some volume projections seem almost unrealistic. Even after applying conservative adjustments, the numbers remain impressive. This level of potential has us energized and committed to investing for growth.

Heat exchangers for data centers

Alfa Laval first began supplying data centers with large gasketed plate heat exchangers that enabled evaporative cooling and free cooling using ocean or freshwater. Alongside them, the company’s brazed plate heat exchangers found their place in chillers, heat pumps, and heat reuse connections.

It moved into the white space in 2022 when it first introduced compact BPHEs for coolant distribution units (CDUs) in liquid-cooled environments. Its first project was for a crypto mining operation in the United States with a single-phase immersion cooling system.

“The crypto industry was early in the adoption of liquid cooling,” Blomborg said. “Their compute density was far higher than traditional workloads, so they pushed for technologies like immersion cooling.’’

Since then, the industry's focus has shifted toward single phase direct-to-chip cooling systems, a technology now generating significant buzz, Blomborg noted. “Two-phase direct-to-chip cooling and immersion are alternative solutions that we are monitoring very closely,” Blomborg said.

The company is actively tracking the rapid evolution of coolant distribution units and recently released an extra-large brazed plate heat exchanger engineered specifically for 2.5MW CDUs. This development marks a significant step forward in meeting the growing demand for high-capacity cooling solutions, and also opens the door to new opportunities for Alfa Laval to innovate at scale, Blomborg said.

Increased involvement of end users

In recent years, the dynamic between data center operators and technology providers has shifted. Where Alfa Laval once primarily supplied OEMs building cooling skids or coolant distribution units, today hyperscalers and other end users are stepping forward to collaborate directly.

This interest is driven by the relentless pursuit of better PUE (power usage effectiveness) ratings. Even small improvements in heat exchanger design, down to a few degrees or tenths of a degree, can translate into massive energy savings across facilities operating hundreds of megawatts of IT power.

We’re seeing a growing trend where the end user wants to be involved in the design process. They’re looking at heat transfer solutions as a strategic lever for efficiency. There’s a lot you can achieve through precision in heat exchanger design,” Blomborg said . “Those incremental gains matter when you scale.

Anna Blomborg, Head of Data Centers at Alfa Laval

Thousands of heat exchangers for data centers

There are thousands of Alfa Laval heat exchangers installed in data centers across the world. The installed base is large and each year the industry adds hundreds of large gasketed plate heat exchangers alongside thousands of compact brazed units, according to Blomborg.

Not long ago, a 100MW facility was considered large in the data center sector. Today, Alfa Laval is supporting projects that scale to and above 1GW. The U.S. leads the way, representing around half of Alfa Laval’s data center business, with Asia contributing 30% and Europe 20%. Looking ahead, the company sees strong opportunities in high-growth regions such as China, India and Thailand, as well as Northern Europe.

Rapid expansion brings both opportunity and complexity. Meeting demand at this scale requires significant investment, not only in advanced equipment but also in expanding manufacturing capacity and reducing lead times.

Alfa Laval is addressing this challenge head-on with strategic investments in new production lines and factory enlargements to boost efficiency and throughput, Blomborg said.

At the same time, accurate forecasting is critical as the industry navigates uncertainty around the pace of AI-driven growth. “The big question is what the AI growth curve looks like three or four years from now,” Blomborg said. “It’s shaping every decision we make today and we’re building flexibility into our operations to stay ahead.”

Sustainability and regulatory opportunities

The U.S. data center market is flush with opportunities because of its focus on speed. The EU’s focus on sustainability and regulation is also creating opportunities for Alfa Laval.

The company is targeting net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2027 and a 50% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2030 compared to a 2020 baseline.² It’s increasing its purchases of green steel and copper, too.

Today, we’re measured on delivery time, accuracy, and quality. But we believe sustainability will soon become a key factor in supplier selection and we’re ready for that shift.

Anna Blomborg, Head of Data Centers at Alfa Laval

Regarding a possible PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) restriction in the EU, Blomborg said Alfa Laval would “welcome” such a regulation. She said the company is an ambassador for natural refrigerants and said there is “frustration internally that the industry isn’t pushing harder for natural refrigerants and that PFAS urgency is lacking.”

While a potential PFAS ban is still years away, there are already regulations in Europe mandating heat reuse for data centers. In September 2023, the EU revised its Energy Efficiency Directive, requiring data centers with 500kW or more of installed IT power to track waste heat utilization.³ Facilities with 1MW or more must implement waste heat recovery unless technically or economically unfeasible. Germany⁴ and France⁵ have gone further, introducing laws that mandate progressive waste heat reuse targets up to 20% by 2028.

Alfa Laval is actively supporting this transition. Its heat exchanger technology is designed to maximize energy recovery, enabling operators to capture and repurpose waste heat for district heating or internal reuse. By engineering efficient products that can easily integrate with many different reuse options, such as absorption cooling or organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems, Alfa Laval helps data centers turn excess heat into a valuable resource, Blomborg said.

As chips get more powerful, the heat they generate becomes more valuable for reuse. Chip temperatures of 60°C (140°F) could enable waste heat to be turned into electricity, Blomborg said.

“Efficiency may not be perfect, but with the sheer volume of heat available, it might be interesting enough,” Blomborg said. “I’m excited about what’s possible.”

References:

1 Alfa Laval, December 2025, “Our Purpose and How We Create Value

2 Alfa Laval, December 2025, “Annual Sustainability Report 2024,”

3 European Union, September 20, 2023, “Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on Energy Efficiency and Amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast),”

4 Holtermann, A., Bird&Bird, June 4, 2024, “Data Centres & Waste Heat: An Overview of the Legal Requirements for Waste Heat Utilisation,”

5 Chandesris, S., Addleshaw Goddard, December 2025, “The Future of Data Centers in France,”