Intel’s biggest water facility hits a milestone: 1 billion gallons recycled
The new water recycling plant at Intel’s Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, recently surpassed the billion-gallon mark, underscoring the company’s global efforts to reuse the water it needs for advanced computer chip manufacturing. Once recycled, the water goes into scrubbers, cooling towers and other equipment, creating a huge loop of reclaim and reuse.
The Oregon facility is a low-slung but highly complex 12-acre network of piping (15 miles’ worth), electrical conduit (102 miles’ worth) and settling tanks (the largest is bigger than three Olympic-size swimming pools). To ensure it runs efficiently, the company built the plant to produce a firehose of information — its 24/7 operation is monitored by nearly 40,000 real-time data sensors. Intel’s Hillsboro water recycling plant is the company’s largest in the world now operating — the only other one of comparable size is in Ocotillo, Arizona, which is still in its startup phase.
Intel’s billion-gallon milestone in Oregon precedes events focused on the climate currently underway at the U.N. General Assembly. The U.N. reports that water – its availability or scarcity – “is the primary medium through which we will feel the effects of climate change.”
Intel’s global commitment to wise water use — through a combination of reuse and recycling, conservation and community-based restoration — is a key element of the company’s 2030 Sustainability Goals. The company has committed to “be a global leader in sustainability and enable our customers and other to reduce their environmental impact through our actions and technology.”
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