Authors: Paul Hallelujah
Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (preprint, 2026-03-12)
Field: Materials Science — Materials Chemistry

Parasitic Server Heat Reclamation: Harvesting the Seebeck Effect for Autonomous Microprocessor Cooling in High-Density AI Data Centers Description: As the global artificial intelligence (AI) buildout accelerates, the Thermal Design Power (TDP) of next-generation accelerators (such as the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture) has breached the 1200W-per-chip threshold. Traditional active cooling paradigms, which rely on centralized facility pumps and macro-grid power, suffer from severe exergy destruction and scale superlinearly with computational throughput. This preprint introduces the theoretical and applied framework for Parasitic Server Heat Reclamation (PSHR). PSHR is a decentralized, solid-state energy recovery architecture that treats the microprocessor not merely as a heat source, but as a high-temperature reservoir for a thermodynamic heat engine. By integrating nanostructured Bi2Te3-based Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) modules and Eutectic Gallium-Indium (EGaIn) liquid metal thermal interfaces at the primary silicon junction, this paper demonstrates the direct conversion of extreme localized heat flux (~ 150 W/cm^2) into high-quality DC electrical power. This harvested energy is utilized to drive autonomous, localized micro-pumps, establishing a self-regulating cybernetic cooling loop. Key Contributions in this Manuscript: Material Science Optimization: Chemical analysis of carrier-concentration optimization via Tellurium nanoprecipitates to push the TEG figure of merit (ZT) above 1.3. Fluid Dynamic Coupling: Comprehensive Navier-Stokes derivation for self-powering two-phase micro-channel heat sinks. The Hallelujah Number (Ha): Introduction of a novel dimensionless parameter to quantify self-cooling viability and thermodynamic surplus in high-density chips. Technoeconomic Modeling: Levelized Cost of Cooling (LCOC) analysis projecting a sub-24-month Return on Investment (ROI) for hyperscale deployments. Thermal Emergency Buffering (TEB): A mechanism utilizing residual heat to maintain coolant flow during facility power loss, preventing catastrophic silicon failure. This deposit contains the full manuscript detailing the thermodynamic derivations, chemical lattice modeling, and economic projections for PSHR implementation in Tier-1 hyperscale environments. Keywords & Subjects Keywords: Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure High-Performance Computing (HPC) Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) Data Center Thermal Management Seebeck Effect Exergy Recovery Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3) Liquid Metal TIM (EGaIn) Direct Liquid Cooling (DLC) Subjects: Engineering / Thermal Engineering Engineering / Computer Hardware Materials Science / Nanotechnology Physics / Thermodynamics Additional Information Notes: Draft manuscript/preprint. Corresponding author: Paul Hallelujah (paul.hallelujah@queensu.ca). Coolant ; Thermoelectric generator ; Thermoelectric cooling ; Active cooling ; Water cooling ; Waste heat ; Thermal energy storage ; Heat flux ; Heat transfer ; Rankine cycle Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices ; Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics ; Heat Transfer and Optimization