Hydratech says growing demand for its Coolflow DTX® and Thermox DTX® product ranges reflects a broader industry move away from conventional propylene glycol coolants, as operators look to reduce energy consumption, improve thermal efficiency and lower the long-term operating costs.

Crucially, Hydratech says DTX fluids are not only engineered to outperform traditional propylene glycol formulations, but are also considerably less expensive to purchase, offering US operators an opportunity to reduce both upfront coolant costs and ongoing operational expenditure at a time of growing market instability.

Unlike propylene glycol, which has become increasingly expensive due to global petrochemical supply pressures, DTX technology is based on detoxified ethylene glycol - allowing operators to benefit from the superior thermal and flow performance associated with ethylene glycol while maintaining the low-toxicity characteristics typically associated with propylene glycol.

Because ethylene glycol feedstocks remain significantly less expensive than propylene glycol, particularly during periods of geopolitical instability and supply disruption, Hydratech says DTX fluids can deliver a substantial cost advantage over conventional PG formulations without compromising operational safety or performance.

With significantly lower viscosity, particularly at low temperatures Coolflow DTX®® reduces the energy required to circulate fluid around the system. At the same time, its enhanced thermal performance improves heat exchange efficiency. In real-world terms, converting from propylene glycol to Coolflow DTX®® has been shown to increase system Coefficient of Performance (COP) by more than 10%, while delivering comparable reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions.

For many facilities, the issue is no longer simply glycol availability.

It is whether traditional propylene glycol formulations still make commercial and operational sense in modern cooling infrastructure.

That pressure is intensifying as global instability continues to disrupt petrochemical supply chains. Escalating tensions involving Iran and ongoing instability across the Middle East are creating growing uncertainty surrounding global energy and chemical supply routes, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical shipping corridors for oil, gas and petrochemical products.

At the same time, the continuing Russia-Ukraine war continues to drive volatility across global energy markets, increasing manufacturing, transportation and production costs throughout the chemical industry. Industrial buyers are also facing higher shipping and freight costs linked to Red Sea disruption, war-risk insurance premiums and wider global logistics instability, further increasing the landed cost of glycol products entering North America.

Hydratech believes this is accelerating interest in higher-performance thermal fluids capable of delivering measurable operational savings beyond the initial fluid purchase cost.

For food & beverage process cooling applications, where temperature consistency and production uptime are critical, Coolflow DTX® is designed to provide more efficient heat transfer and reduced pumping strain compared with standard PG formulations. The company says this can help processors improve cooling performance while lowering operational energy demand.

The same performance advantages are becoming increasingly relevant across the rapidly expanding US data center sector.

As AI workloads and higher rack densities drive unprecedented cooling requirements, operators are under pressure to improve power usage effectiveness (PUE) and reduce cooling-related energy consumption. Hydratech says Coolflow DTX®'s enhanced thermal efficiency and lower viscosity profile make it particularly well suited to modern high-demand cooling infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in the renewable heating sector, Hydratech’s Thermox DTX® is being positioned as a next-generation fluid for heat pump systems seeking improved seasonal efficiency and lower operational stress. Designed specifically for renewable heating applications, Thermox DTX® offers improved thermal transfer performance over conventional propylene glycol blends while helping reduce the efficiency penalties often associated with higher viscosity fluids.

As geopolitical uncertainty continues to reshape global chemical markets, industrial operators are increasingly reassessing whether traditional glycol solutions can still meet the efficiency, performance and cost demands of modern cooling and renewable energy systems.

For many in the US market, the transition is already underway.

Talk to Hydratech today and discover more about DTX technology.