South Korean petrochemical firm S-Oil launched an integrated immersion cooling solution for high-density data centers at HVAC KOREA 2026, positioning the country's refining sector as a direct participant in the global race to manage AI-driven thermal loads.
Background
S-Oil announced on May 13 that it would showcase an immersion cooling solution for data centers in partnership with Global Standard Technology (GST) at HVAC KOREA 2026, held at COEX in Seoul through May 15. The exhibition is Korea's principal mechanical equipment trade event, attracting installers, engineers, and procurement decision-makers across HVAC and building services.
The announcement reflects mounting pressure on data center operators worldwide to move beyond conventional air-cooling architectures. GPU rack densities driven by AI compute workloads have outpaced air cooling's capacity, forcing developers to choose among direct liquid cooling, immersion, and evaporative systems before a facility is even designed. A rack of Nvidia H100s draws 10 to 14 kW per server, meaning a standard 42U rack can reach 60 to 80 kW of heat load.
Korea is not new to this challenge. HD Hyundai Oilbank partnered with Seoul National University and cooling system operator Databean, signing a memorandum of understanding to deploy an immersion cooling system for AI data centers at the university. HD Hyundai Oilbank launched its immersion cooling fluid brand X Teer E-Cooling Fluid and began supplying fluid to domestic hyperscaler Naver Cloud. S-Oil's move at HVAC KOREA 2026 adds a second major Korean energy company to this emerging segment.
Details
At the exhibition, S-Oil supplied its "S-OIL e-Cooling Solution," an immersion cooling fluid optimized for data center environments, while GST provided immersion cooling equipment. Together, the two companies delivered an integrated solution capable of managing heat from high-performance AI and computing servers.
S-Oil also plans to conduct a demonstration test of immersion cooling technology for data centers in collaboration with GST and the Sungkyunkwan University Supercomputing Center. The goal is to establish an integrated cooperation framework linking immersion cooling fluid, equipment, and real operating environments to verify the technology's applicability in high-performance computing settings.
An S-Oil representative stated, "As AI becomes more widespread, the issues of heat generation and power efficiency in data centers are emerging as important challenges," adding that the company would contribute to improving energy efficiency through immersion cooling fluid-based thermal management solutions.
While this appears to be S-Oil's first venture into data center cooling fluid, many petrochemical firms-including HF Sinclair, Shell, Castrol, ExxonMobil, ENEOS, Gulf Oil, Petronas, Perstorp, and SK Enmove-have brought such fluids to market in recent years. S-Oil plans to expand applications of its immersion cooling fluid beyond energy storage systems to data centers, electric vehicles, and other sectors.
The global market context underscores the commercial rationale. The global data center immersion cooling market was valued at USD 1.7 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 10.9 billion by 2035 at a compound annual growth rate of 19.8%, according to Global Market Insights. A separate analysis by Future Market Insights, published in May 2026, estimated the broader AI data center liquid cooling segment at USD 3.20 billion in 2025, growing to USD 17.83 billion by 2036 at a CAGR of 16.9%.
The energy efficiency case for immersion cooling is quantifiable. Liquid cooling technology is expected to reduce data center cooling power consumption to one-tenth of current levels, meaning just 4% of total data center power would go toward cooling, according to data cited by SK Enmove. By contrast, the share of cooling in total data center consumption ranges from about 7% for efficient hyperscale facilities to over 30% for less-efficient enterprise data centers, according to the International Energy Agency.
Driven by the global push for environmental compliance and sustainability, many data centers are shifting away from PFAS-based and mineral oil fluids toward synthetic alternatives that meet the latest regulatory standards, according to MarketsandMarkets. Synthetic fluids-including ester-based, engineered hydrocarbon, and novel PFAS-free formulations-are projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period, offering superior thermal stability, dielectric strength, oxidation resistance, and material compatibility compared to traditional mineral oil or natural esters.
Outlook
The liquid immersion cooling industry lacks global industrial standards, so companies that commercialize related technology and build delivery track records early stand to gain market confidence first, according to one energy industry official. Between 2026 and 2030, adoption of AI data center liquid cooling systems is expected to accelerate rapidly as hyperscalers and AI infrastructure providers scale GPU-intensive training environments. For HVAC and building services professionals, the expansion of immersion cooling into standard data center infrastructure will increasingly demand familiarity with dielectric fluid handling, secondary heat rejection systems, and integration with building management platforms.
