Collaborating on Shared Challenges: Sustainability and Operational Excellence Panel Report-out

The Sustainability and Operational Excellence strand at UltraFacility 2024 focused on striking the difficult balance between reaching the high-quality standards imposed by increasing device complexity and mitigating the strain this places on environmental resources.

In an opening panel for the strand, moderator Dan Wilcox (Principal Engineer, Samsung Austin Semiconductor) was joined by panelists:

1. Bharath Gopal, IDC Facilities Chemical Engineer, Meta
2. Kelly Osborne, Senior Staff Engineer, Intel
3. Mary Faulk, Director of Integrated System Planning & Support, Salt River Project (SRP)
4. Thomas Bolyen, Utility Plant Superintendent, City of Chandler

The panelists explored future water and energy strategies for resource-intensive industries such as semiconductors and data centers. Here are some of the key takeaways from the session:

As Demand Soars, Resources are Dwindling

All of the panelists shared the key challenge of resource availability.

Arizona is a high-tech manufacturing hub, but how can industry supply huge quantities of water to factories in the desert? The panelists discussed how creative, engineered solutions were necessary. Raw water purchases can help to make up the difference between supply and demand, but with the rapid growth of the city and heavy demand from semiconductor clients, Thomas Bolyen explained that "Chandler is a victim of its own success… now we’re at 95% buildout, and we have to make tough decisions about what we can afford to do with our available water".

Data centers with intensive large-scale cooling and humidification systems will have significant water requirements –which could lead to supply issues if the local utility lacks infrastructure. The good news is that the data center industry wants to make water efficiency a priority; Bharath Gopal noted that "most hyper-scalers want to be good stewards when it comes to water use, even if it is cheap and plentiful".

If current demands are stretching resources, then anticipating future demand is even more difficult. In Arizona, proposals for new data centers have been cropping up, capitalizing on the infrastructure cultivated by years of semiconductor manufacturing operations. Mary Faulk revealed that demand from the data center industry is ramping up predicted future demand. To meet the needs of SRP’s current pipeline of customers, energy capacity must double in the next 5 years.

At the same time, corporate net zero carbon goals are fueling adoption of renewable energy and the retirement of typical fossil fuel power generation from coal and natural gas. Faulk succinctly summarized SRP’s conundrum – "demand is up, and our supply is coming down".

It's a Juggling Act

The trade-off between water and energy is ever-present in the fight to reclaim and reuse water – unit operations in water reclamation facilities are very energy intensive. Osborne pointed to modelling and digital twins as a helpful tool in “a very complex chess game of how you optimize reuse and reclaim”, as over-treatment can be avoided by advanced planning. Communicating transparently with local utilities, for example about water balances and energy balances, is crucial to achieve this. 

Local resource availability can tip the balance one way or another – the choice to employ technologies with increased power consumption and higher water efficiency often comes down to site-specific conditions, as Gopal explained is the case for decisions around data center cooling technology.

Evolving Strategies

The changing landscape of water availability and demand requires utilities and manufacturers to change gear and explore increasingly innovative approaches to water and energy strategies.

The City of Chandler had previously consistently discharged waste to the environment, Bolyen explained, before moving to its current model of repurposing waste and creating a beneficial product. “Direct potable reuse is in our future,” he noted, “and that’s remarkable for this area [Arizona]”.

For electrical utilities like Salt River Project, this means a change in attitude; “To be able to firm up those new renewable resources, we need newer technology to emerge,” explained Mary Faulk. Prior reluctance to test emerging technologies is being replaced by research into new opportunities such as longer-life batteries, pumped storage and even small nuclear reactors.

Kelly Osborne explained that Intel constantly asks the question “How do we take [our] very water intensive technology and do our best to be good stewards of that resource?” It is vital to figure out how to increase water efficiency, and above all to reduce water consumption. Reducing consumption could include research into recipe optimization and improving efficiency of rinses and purge cycles. Of course, the Ocotillo Brine Reduction Facility is a key factor in facilitating water reuse – funded by Intel but owned and operated by the City of Chandler, this partnership enables Intel to reclaim 96% of first pass RO reject from the manufacturing process.

Forward Planning is the Future

Early understanding of water and energy availability and quality in the conceptual design stages of a fab or data center must be done thoroughly to support operations and underpin proactive sustainability strategies. To know where you’re going you must know your current status and implement a path towards your goal.

The digital twin modelling systems at Intel help to model losses and plan water replenishment schemes to meet Intel’s Water Positivity goal, while Bolyen explained that the City of Chandler over-produces and stores excess water to protect against drought.

Consistent water quality data is absolutely essential for forward planning when constructing new facilities. Gopal explained “what we emphasize is to have robust confidence in the water quality data and work closely with the local utility to ensure there is confidence in water availability.” Echoing this Osborne added “consistent effluent quality contributes to repeatability,” which is key to ensuring treatment systems are up to the challenge of treating contaminants in reclaimed water.

Conclusion

Sustainability must feature in every stage of decision making for water-intensive industries such as semiconductor and data centers. Moving forward these industries must take a proactive approach to conserving resources and improving their environmental impact.

Kelly Osborne gave a call to action to the audience: “I encourage each of you to have that frame of reference of ‘beyond just my facility’ – ask yourself ‘what is my overall impact, and how can I improve this?”