Intel Water Recycling Project Could Save Nearly 1 Billion Gallons a Year

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Intel Water Recycling Project Could Save Nearly 1 Billion Gallons a Year

As Intel begins ramping up production at its massive new D1X factory in Hillsboro, Oregon, USA, the company is building a water recycling facility that could save nearly 1 billion gallons a year.

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Intel, Source: Wikimedia Commons, By Wookie

Intel is already the city's largest water consumer, by a wide margin. Computer chip manufacturing requires tremendous volumes of water, to wash silicon wafers clean of residue left at multiple stages of the process.

Intel used more than 2 billion gallons of water in each of the past four years, according to Hillsboro data, nearly a third of the city's total water consumption in any given year.

And the chipmaker's thirst - which has grown by more than a third since 2012 - is growing. Intel's engineers have been developing their first, 10-nanometer chips there, and water use could shoot up dramatically when mass production begins at D1X late this year.

The 10nm chips will be the first line of technology developed in D1X, whose first phase has 1.1 million square feet of clean room space. That's nearly eight times bigger than the average Costco, and could dramatically increase the company's Oregon output.

Intel declined to comment on its water use, and Hillsboro water department director Kevin Hanway said the company has given him no indication of how much more water it expects to use once D1X starts up. But the company has talked with him about the water project, and he says it could save 2.5 million gallons a day.

Though Intel won't say how the water project works, General Electric's water technology group described it earlier this year. GE's connection to the project is unclear, and it declined additional comment. However, its earlier statement said Intel's facility will use industrial water discharged from the manufacturing process and redirect it back into the factory for other applications.

GE said Intel will use the water to in cooling towers, environmental scrubbers that filter pollution, and in unspecified "abatement equipment."

Read full article: Oregon Live

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