음료 브랜드 '리퀴드 데스'가 제이슨 켈시와 함께 '오줌으로 AI 데이터센터를 식히자'는 장난스러운 캠페인을 선보였지만, 실제로 재활용 폐수를 활용한 데이터센터 냉각은 이미 현실에서 사용되는 기술이다. AI 데이터센터의 막대한 물 사용량이 식수 자원에 부담을 주면서, 하수 처리를 거친 재생수를 냉각수로 활용하려는 수요가 급증하고 있다. 다만 대규모 전환은 매일 수백만 갤런을 처리할 수 있는 수처리 인프라가 갖춰져야 가능하다.
번역된 본문
장난스러운 마케팅 캠페인에서 음료 브랜드 리퀴드 데스(Liquid Death)는 전 필라델피아 이글스 스타 제이슨 켈시(Jason Kelce)와 손잡고, 서버 과열을 막기 위해 막대한 양의 물을 소모하는 AI 데이터센터의 환경적 영향을 줄이는 방안을 알렸다. "AI 데이터센터는 수백만 갤런의 물을 낭비합니다"라고 켈시는 영상 캠페인에서 말한다. "그래서 리퀴드 데스와 개라지 비어(Garage Beer)가 손을 잡았습니다. 여러분의 오줌으로 이 데이터센터를 식히고 싶습니다." 그러고는 브랜드 음료를 마시며 들판을 걷는 사람들이 "인류를 구하기 위해 함께 컴퓨터에 오줌을 누자!"라고 합창한다. 재미있는 광고다. 더 웃긴 것은 켈시가 자신도 모르게 데이터센터 냉각의 실제 전략을 짚어냈다는 점이다.
"리퀴드 데스 광고는 재미있고 혀끝을 내두르는 유머죠"라고 에콜랩(Ecolab)의 데이터센터 글로벌 계정 부사장 마이클 오브라도비치(Michael Obradovitch)가 테크크런치에 말했다. "하지만 실제로도 비교적 많은 대체 수원이 비슷한 방식으로 이 데이터센터를 식히는 데 이미 사용되고 있습니다."
데이터센터에서 이런 대체 수원을 사용하면 최소한 부분적으로는 식수 수요를 상쇄할 수 있다. 그런 대체 수원 중 하나가 재생수(再再生水)로, 폐수와 하수를 처리해 안전하게 재사용할 수 있게 만든 것이다. 폐수와 하수에는 여러 가지가 들어 있는데, 여기에는 — 짐작하셨겠지만! — 사람의 오줌도 포함된다.
"오줌을 그대로 쓰는 게 아니라 정화해서 유용한 물로 만들 수 있고, 그것이 우리가 주장하는 바입니다"라고 물 재사용 협회(WateReuse Association) 사무총장이자 미국 환경보호청(EPA) 수자원 부청장 대행을 역임한 브루노 피곯(Bruno Pigott)이 테크크런치에 말했다.
분명히 해두자. 켈시가 농담 삼아 제안하듯 실제로 데이터센터 냉각을 돕겠다고 오줌을 갤런씩 기부해서는 안 된다. 하지만 사고실험 삼아서라도, 오줌을 계속 흘려보내 데이터센터를 식히려고 하면 어떻게 될까? "오줌에는 온갖 것이 들어 있습니다. 염분, 요소, 세균, 광물질 침전을 남길 수 있는 각종 유기물이 있죠. 그걸 냉각탑 같은 곳에 그냥 넣으면 끊임없이 청소해야 합니다"라고 피곯은 말했다. "냉각 방법 중 하나는 증발 냉각인데, 뜨거운 공기를 물에 통과시켜 증발로 열을 제거하는 방식입니다. 뜨거운 공기에 오줌을 붓는다면 상상이 되시나요?"
사실 우리는 오줌을 식수로 바꾸는 기술을 이미 보유하고 있다. 우주비행사들이 우주에서 그렇게 하는데, 우주선에 실어 갈 수 있는 물의 양이 한정되어 있기 때문이다. 하지만 이는 대규모로는 효율적이지 않고, 설령 효율적이라 하더라도 과학자들이 수백만 갤런의 오줌을 마음껏 확보할 수 있는 것도 아니다(물론 켈시가 정말로 이 기믹에 올인하지 않는 한). 대신 우리의 변기 물은 폐수와 하수로 흘러간다. 바로 여기서 수처리 시설이 등장해 재생수를 공급함으로써 우리가 증발한 오줌 냄새를 맡지 않아도 되게 해준다.
이런 시설은 막바이오리액터(MBR), 역삼투(RO), 자외선 등의 공정을 사용해 물을 산업용으로 쓸 수 있을 만큼 깨끗하게 처리한다. 경우에 따라서는 마실 수 있는 수준까지 처리되기도 한다.
"우리는 수십 년 동안 온갖 산업에서 냉각에 재생수를 사용해왔습니다"라고 엔지니어링 회사 CDM Smith의 물 재사용 부문 총괄인 그레타 조네스(Greta Zornes) 박사가 테크크런치에 말했다. "이건 그중 하나의 활용 사례일 뿐이지만, 확실히 데이터센터 냉각을 위한 재생수 수요가 폭발적으로 늘고 있습니다." 조네스는 20년 넘게 물 재사용 기술을 연구해왔지만, 데이터센터 수요가 늘면서 그녀의 일상 업무도 변했다. "지금은 매일 데이터센터용 재생수 프로젝트를 하고 있습니다."
데이터센터가 재생수를 더 많이 사용할수록 지역 식수 공급에 주는 부담이 줄어든다. 하지만 산업계가 재생수 활용으로 전환하려면 매일 수백만 갤런의 물을 처리할 수 있는 적절한 인프라가 갖춰져 있어야만 한다.
In a cheeky marketing campaign , Liquid Death teamed up with former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce to share a solution to mitigate the environmental impact of AI data centers, which require massive quantities of water to prevent servers from overheating. "AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water," Kelce quips in the video campaign. "That's why Liquid Death and Garage Beer have teamed up. We want your pee to cool these data centers." Then, as a crowd of people walk through a field sipping their branded beverages, they sing in unison: "Let's pee on computers together to save humanity!" It's a funny commercial. What's even funnier is that Kelce has unwittingly stumbled upon a real tactic for cooling down data centers. "The Liquid Death commercial is funny and tongue-in-cheek," Michael Obradovitch, vice president of Data Center Global Accounts at Ecolab, told TechCrunch. "But in reality, there is a fair amount of alternative water sources already being used to a similar extent to cool these data centers." These alternative water sources, when used in data centers, at least partially offset the demand for potable drinking water. One such alternative water source is recycled water, which is made by treating wastewater and sewage water so that they're safe to use again. Wastewater and sewage water contain many things, including — you guessed it! — human urine. "You wouldn't just use pee, but you can clean it and make it into useful water, and that's what we advocate," Bruno Pigott, executive director of the WateReuse Association and former acting assistant administrator in water for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told TechCrunch. To be clear: you should not actually contribute gallons of your pee to help cool data centers, as Kelce facetiously suggests. But just for the sake of the thought experiment: what would happen if you did try to cool a data center with a steady stream of pee? "Pee contains all sorts of stuff. It contains salts, it contains urea, bacteria, organic matter of all sorts that can leave mineral deposits. If you just put that into a cooling tower or something else, it would require constant cleaning," said Pigott. "One of the methods of cooling is called evaporative cooling, where hot air is passed through water to remove heat through evaporation. Can you imagine if you just poured urine through hot air?" We do have the technology to turn our urine into potable drinking water — that's what astronauts do in space , since they can only bring so much water with them on their spacecraft. But that isn't efficient at a large scale, and even if it were, it's not like scientists can just access millions of gallons of pee at will (well, not unless Kelce really commits to the bit). Instead, our toilet water ends up in wastewater and sewage. That's where water treatment facilities come in, providing recycled water to spare us from the smell of evaporated urine. These facilities use membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light, and other processes to treat water until it's clean enough for industrial use. In some cases, this water can even be treated to the point that it's drinkable. "We use recycled water for cooling for all kinds of industries, and we have for decades," Dr. Greta Zornes, practice leader for water reuse at the engineering firm CDM Smith, told TechCrunch. "So this is only one application, but definitely, there's been a boom in recycled water for data center cooling." Though Zornes has worked on water reuse technology for more than two decades, her day-to-day work has shifted with the rising demand for data centers. "Every day right now, I'm working on recycled water for data centers," she said. When data centers use more recycled water, they don't pose as much of a burden to the local potable water supply. But industries can only pivot to recycled water use when there is proper infrastructure in place to treat millions of gallons of water every day. "You have to be somewhat near a waste water treatment facility that’s sizable enough that you have enough water to use," Zornes said. "So when data centers go out into rural areas, a lot of times the wastewater treatment plants just aren’t big enough — they’re not treating enough water for them to be able to take it and treat it and use it." Loudoun County, Virginia, located outside of Washington, D.C., is home to more than 250 data centers, with plans to construct at least another two dozen. As of 2025, Loudoun data centers collectively used about 200 million gallons of recycled water each day, but the water footprint of these data centers is so extreme that this only accounts for 43% of daily data center water usage in the area. The other 260 million gallons, or 57% of daily data center water usage, come from potable water supplies, according to Loudoun Water . "There's a lot of infrastructure that has to be built out and usually isn't existing today, and that takes time" Zornes said. "That's one of the problems — it's just the time that it takes to get that done." Obradovitch thinks that the AI industry could even drive resources toward building out this kind of infrastructure to scale water treatment. Meta, for example, will invest at least $270 million in wastewater infrastructure projects near its data centers (the company also loses about $4 billion each quarter on its Reality Labs division). "That's where data centers can actually come in and be anchors of water infrastructure," Obradovitch said. "There's a number of cases and examples where data centers, as part of their engagement with communities, have committed funding and capital to some of these municipalities to help in addressing some of those exact challenges." On the policy side, Pigott is advocating for legislation that would provide a 30% tax credit to help industries scale their recycled water infrastructure. "We think it would greatly accelerate the pace with which data centers and other industries entered into this area," he said. While there's some unintentional science behind Liquid Death's joke, the commercial and its virality serve as a reminder to the tech industry that the environmental demands of data centers have become a mainstream concern. According to a recent Gallup poll , about seven out of ten Americans oppose data centers in their communities, and AI products continue to face backlash from consumers who feel as though the technology is being forced into their lives. "I’m glad that people are concerned about water, and anything that raises awareness of water, however crude it may be, could actually be beneficial," Pigott said. "It gives us a chance to educate the public about what we’re doing today." Topics AI , Exclusive When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission . This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Amanda Silberling Senior Writer Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos. You can contact or verify outreach from Amanda by emailing amanda@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at @amanda.100 on Signal. View Bio October 13 - 15 San Francisco In less than 48 hours, your chance to save up to $300 on your tickets will end! REGISTER NOW Most Popular Home batteries are suddenly cheap and everywhere. Here’s why. Tim De Chant Cursor capitalizes on GitHub frustration, launches rival hosting platform Lucas Ropek Etched's valuation doubles to $21B in a month Julie Bort Stripe will reportedly a