ChemTreat released a white paper outlining best practices for commissioning next-generation AI data center cooling syste

ChemTreat, Inc., a Veralto company and leader in industrial water treatment, released a new white paper titled The Framework for Operational Readiness in Data Center Cooling Systems on July 8, 2026. The paper outlines best practices and methodologies to help project teams and contractors address emerging gaps in AI data center construction and commissioning processes.

System reliability has become the defining performance metric for the data center industry. In 2025, most major data center outages cost more than 100,000 dollars, and high-density AI facilities increasingly target five-nines, or 99.999 percent availability, which permits only about 5.26 minutes of unplanned downtime per year. Yet many projects continue to rely on outdated water readiness standards and hydronic cleaning specifications. These practices can allow contaminants to enter cooling systems before startup, increasing the likelihood of corrosion and downstream performance problems.

After reviewing hundreds of data center specifications, ChemTreat identified a critical gap in current project delivery. Relatively few specifications incorporate meaningful input from cooling system and fluid chemistry experts. Instead, cooling expertise is often introduced late in the construction lifecycle, after key decisions on water system configuration and chemical treatment integration have already been made. This limits opportunities to establish measurable turnover standards and can carry hidden reliability risk before facilities even become operational.

Jacob Paugh, Senior Director of Global High Tech at ChemTreat, explained the significance of this timing. "The reality is that long-term reliability is often decided before a system ever comes online. This framework provides owners, engineers, and contractors with a practical way to get ahead of potential issues, rather than compromising uptime to fix corrosion and contamination after the racks are running."

ChemTreat's Operational Readiness Framework is built on five core principles for commissioning excellence and includes a Preconstruction Readiness Assessment that engages cooling expertise upstream and a practical Day-One Readiness Checklist spanning design, construction, commissioning, and governance. These elements help project teams establish measurable criteria for assessing cooling system readiness before AI workloads come online.

Dr. Philip Yu, Senior Technical Services Consultant at ChemTreat, added that commissioning should be reconsidered as a foundational process. "Commissioning has traditionally been treated as a construction milestone, when it should be the foundation for long-term reliability. We're aiming to change that. By bringing cooling system and fluid chemistry expertise early into the design process, project teams can tailor the commissioning process to each site's unique water specifications, discharge, and infrastructure constraints, facilitating more reliable startup and setting the stage for reliable performance from day one."

ChemTreat supports data center cooling systems from preconstruction through steady-state operations as part of its Blueprint to Beyond program, which integrates experienced field engineers, application-specific treatment programs, the CTSolutions D2C direct-to-chip cooling package, advanced monitoring, and analytical laboratory validation. The company serves over 200 data center sites and positions itself as uniquely positioned to support next-generation digital infrastructure from blueprint to beyond.