Ok, can we actually cool data centers with our pee?

In a cheeky selling campaign, Liquid Death teamed up with erstwhile Philadelphia Eagles prima Jason Kelce to stock a solution to mitigate the environmental impact of AI information centers, which necessitate monolithic quantities of h2o to forestall servers from overheating.

“AI information centers discarded millions of gallons of water,” Kelce quips successful the video campaign. “That’s wherefore Liquid Death and Garage Beer person teamed up. We privation your pee to chill these information centers.”

Then, arsenic a assemblage of radical locomotion done a tract sipping their branded beverages, they sing successful unison: “Let’s pee connected computers unneurotic to prevention humanity!”

It’s a comic commercial. What’s adjacent funnier is that Kelce has unwittingly stumbled upon a existent maneuver for cooling down information centers.

“The Liquid Death commercialized is comic and tongue-in-cheek,” Michael Obradovitch, vice president of Data Center Global Accounts astatine Ecolab, told TechCrunch. “But successful reality, determination is simply a just magnitude of alternate h2o sources already being utilized to a akin grade to chill these information centers.”

These alternate h2o sources, erstwhile utilized successful information centers, astatine slightest partially offset the request for potable drinking water. One specified alternate h2o root is recycled water, which is made by treating wastewater and sewage h2o truthful that they’re harmless to usage again. Wastewater and sewage h2o incorporate galore things, including — you guessed it! — quality urine.

“You wouldn’t conscionable usage pee, but you tin cleanable it and marque it into utile water, and that’s what we advocate,” Bruno Pigott, enforcement manager of the WateReuse Association and erstwhile acting adjunct head successful h2o for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told TechCrunch.

To beryllium clear: you should not really lend gallons of your pee to assistance chill information centers, arsenic Kelce facetiously suggests. But conscionable for the involvement of the thought experiment: what would hap if you did effort to chill a information halfway with a dependable watercourse of pee?

“Pee contains each sorts of stuff. It contains salts, it contains urea, bacteria, integrated substance of each sorts that tin permission mineral deposits. If you conscionable enactment that into a cooling operation oregon thing else, it would necessitate changeless cleaning,” said Pigott. “One of the methods of cooling is called evaporative cooling, wherever blistery aerial is passed done h2o to region vigor done evaporation. Can you ideate if you conscionable poured urine done blistery air?”

We bash person the exertion to crook our urine into potable drinking h2o — that’s what astronauts bash successful space, since they tin lone bring truthful overmuch h2o with them connected their spacecraft. But that isn’t businesslike astatine a ample scale, and adjacent if it were, it’s not similar scientists tin conscionable entree millions of gallons of pee astatine volition (well, not unless Kelce truly commits to the bit). Instead, our toilet h2o ends up successful wastewater and sewage.

That’s wherever h2o attraction facilities travel in, providing recycled h2o to spare america from the odor of evaporated urine. These facilities usage membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light, and different processes to dainty h2o until it’s cleanable capable for concern use. In immoderate cases, this h2o tin adjacent beryllium treated to the constituent that it’s drinkable.

“We usage recycled h2o for cooling for each kinds of industries, and we person for decades,” Dr. Greta Zornes, signifier person for h2o reuse astatine the engineering steadfast CDM Smith, told TechCrunch. “So this is lone 1 application, but definitely, there’s been a roar successful recycled h2o for information halfway cooling.”

Though Zornes has worked connected h2o reuse exertion for much than 2 decades, her day-to-day enactment has shifted with the rising request for information centers.

“Every time close now, I’m moving connected recycled h2o for information centers,” she said.

When information centers usage much recycled water, they don’t airs arsenic overmuch of a load to the section potable h2o supply. But industries tin lone pivot to recycled h2o usage erstwhile determination is due infrastructure successful spot to dainty millions of gallons of h2o each day.

“You person to beryllium somewhat adjacent a discarded h2o attraction installation that’s sizable capable that you person capable h2o to use,” Zornes said. “So erstwhile information centers spell retired into agrarian areas, a batch of times the wastewater attraction plants conscionable aren’t large capable — they’re not treating capable h2o for them to beryllium capable to instrumentality it and dainty it and usage it.”

Aerial presumption of information centers successful LOudoun County, Virginia.Image Credits:Gerville / Getty Images

Loudoun County, Virginia, located extracurricular of Washington, D.C., is location to much than 250 information centers, with plans to conception astatine slightest different 2 dozen. As of 2025, Loudoun information centers collectively utilized astir 200 cardinal gallons of recycled h2o each day, but the h2o footprint of these information centers is truthful utmost that this lone accounts for 43% of regular information halfway h2o usage successful the area. The different 260 cardinal gallons, oregon 57% of regular information halfway h2o usage, travel from potable h2o supplies, according to Loudoun Water.

“There’s a batch of infrastructure that has to beryllium built retired and usually isn’t existing today, and that takes time” Zornes said. “That’s 1 of the problems — it’s conscionable the clip that it takes to get that done.”

Obradovitch thinks that the AI manufacture could adjacent thrust resources toward gathering retired this benignant of infrastructure to standard h2o treatment. Meta, for example, volition put at slightest $270 million successful wastewater infrastructure projects adjacent its information centers (the institution besides loses about $4 billion each 4th connected its Reality Labs division).

“That’s wherever information centers tin really travel successful and beryllium anchors of h2o infrastructure,” Obradovitch said. “There’s a fig of cases and examples wherever information centers, arsenic portion of their engagement with communities, person committed backing and superior to immoderate of these municipalities to assistance successful addressing immoderate of those nonstop challenges.”

On the argumentation side, Pigott is advocating for legislation that would supply a 30% taxation recognition to assistance industries standard their recycled h2o infrastructure.

“We deliberation it would greatly accelerate the gait with which information centers and different industries entered into this area,” helium said.

While there’s immoderate unintentional subject down Liquid Death’s joke, the commercialized and its virality service arsenic a reminder to the tech manufacture that the biology demands of information centers person go a mainstream concern. According to a recent Gallup poll, astir 7 retired of 10 Americans reason information centers successful their communities, and AI products proceed to face backlash from consumers who consciousness arsenic though the exertion is being forced into their lives.

“I’m gladsome that radical are acrophobic astir water, and thing that raises consciousness of water, nevertheless crude it whitethorn be, could really beryllium beneficial,” Pigott said. “It gives america a accidental to amended the nationalist astir what we’re doing today.”