New fluid-agnostic thermal infrastructure platform delivers up to 2x the cooling capacity in half the footprint of legacy CDUs – cutting operating costs by 40% and redefining energy efficiency for the AI era
Orbis Electric, the high-performance electric motor company behind the patented HaloDrive platform, announced its new Cooling Engine, a breakthrough thermal infrastructure solution designed to meet the extreme energy demands of next-generation high-density AI data centers and high-performance computing (HPC) deployments.
Like an EV motor that regenerates power under braking, the Cooling Engine’s axial-flux motor-pumps operate bidirectionally with no mechanical switching, capturing energy that conventional coolant distribution units (CDUs) waste. This ‘virtual generation’ step recovers power, transforming cooling from a passive parasitic load into an active energy asset. Engineered to remove heat and create more headroom for performance, the Cooling Engine, powered by HaloDrive, also reclaims rack-level space and compute power, achieving 80-90% wire-to-fluid efficiency and delivering up to twice the cooling capacity of legacy CDUs.
“Most data center cooling systems waste energy the way old cars used to waste every bit of braking power,” shared Marcus Hays, founder and CEO of Orbis Electric. “The Cooling Engine extracts that energy, reuses it and even stores it – turning cooling from a cost center into a power source that captures recurring revenue.”
Powered by Orbis Electric’s HaloDrive Motor-Pump combination a rare-earth-free axial-flux machine that delivers 96% efficiency the Cooling Engine unifies propulsion-grade motor technology and 800V-class power distribution into a modular architecture that supports rack densities exceeding 200 kW. The result: with a 50% smaller mechanical footprint than conventional CDUs, each Cooling Engine can deliver up to $3M in annual value per 20MW data hall through higher rack density, lower power consumption, and up to 40% reduction in operating and maintenance costs.
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This latest offering extends Orbis’ proven electrification efficiency model – originally designed for automotive and refrigerated trucking (eTRU) systems – into data centers, delivering advanced performance in cooling efficiency, sustainability, and power recovery. Its platform units extend their unique value further, including built-in compatibility with direct-to-chip cooling and the Open Compute Project (OCP) CDU initiative guidelines.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), cooling accounts for up to 40% of total data center energy load. The Cooling Engine, powered by HaloDrive, integrates motor, pump, and heat-to-power recovery into a single, patented system, reducing cooling energy use by up to 50% and returning 5-8% of that load as usable power back into the system. At scale, this represents hundreds of megawatts of new capacity without the need for additional grid infrastructure.
“The Cooling Engine is more than a cooling product – it’s a thermal backbone for the AI economy,” said Chance Claxton, co-founder and COO of Orbis Electric. “By ensuring every watt of chip power is translated to usable compute, we’re turning what has historically been a sunk cost into a new source of recoverable energy – giving data centers a way to scale faster and run greener.”
Built as a single, self-contained row-end module that pumps, cools, and orchestrates flow using one motor and one shared DC power domain, the Cooling Engine introduces a fluid-agnostic, N+1 redundant approach that improves uptime and scalability across hyperscale, AI cluster, and edge deployments.
The Cooling Engine also redefines environmental performance for thermal management by:
- Cutting chiller energy use by up to 80%
- Reducing CO₂ emissions by up to 40% compared to traditional liquid cooling
- Avoiding rare-earth supply chain volatility through the use of Ferrite-based materials
- Cutting water use by 75-80% per 20 MW facility, further enhancing sustainability and cost savings
“As AI accelerates, the infrastructure to support it has to evolve from a constraint to a catalyst,” added Hays. “The Cooling Engine could be that impetus, acting as a force multiplier for data center economics that converts energy into capability and turns efficiency into an advantage.”
Orbis Electric is open to additional pilot deployments with AI infrastructure and data center stakeholders seeking to overcome bottlenecks, as well as other distribution/production partners and strategic investors looking to accelerate electrification efficiencies.
Source: Businesswire
