Novel Wastewater Reclamation Technology Meets Environmental and Business Challenges

In the relentless pursuit of Moore’s Law, Intel’s Technology Development cycle results in a new semiconductor production process every two years. As this continuous cycle of new products moves from conception to market, so do the innovative environmental solutions designed to meet Intel’s philosophy of environmental excellence. Intel’s success in design-forenvironment (DFE) is widely recognized. In 2007 Intel was rated the top U.S. technology company to be named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index—for the seventh straight year. In normal process technology development cycles, Intel’s environmental systems are developed in parallel with the semiconductor manufacturing process. However, Intel is a global company and this proactive process sometimes needs adjusting to accommodate unique differences in local conditions. Such a situation occurred recently for a new Intel HighVolume Manufacturing (HVM) facility that was under construction in an arid region. The technology development team faced a triple challenge of finding a technology solution that would meet water conservation needs, new environmental standards, and a compressed project schedule. The project site was being required to treat the entire wastewater stream of both new and existing factories to achieve a very high level of wastewater effluent quality and to meet water reuse and conservation priorities of the local authorities. Meeting the schedule while designing and implementing a system capable of achieving effluent quality targets that would also maximize water reuse became a paramount task, since the business permit for operating the Fab would not be issued without this infrastructure. With only half of the normal development time available and no prior Intel experience with the proposed wastewater treatment technology, a task force was formed from multiple business groups to achieve successful completion of the project. In this paper we focus on the following aspects of the aforementioned situation: 1. How the team incorporated risk-taking with other Intel best-known-methods to address both schedule and technology challenges. 2. The intensive technical study that resulted in the definition and optimization of the technology. 3. Value Engineering that resulted in design and construction of this system at costs normally associated with systems that are an order-ofmagnitude smaller. 4. Creating greater water recycle opportunities by treating wastewater to such high standards. 5. The additional benefits of being able to treat other waste streams that are currently segregated. 6. The future challenges and opportunities associated with completion of this project.