Intel May Cut Use Of Water; New Technology To Be Presented

By MICHAEL DAVIS Journal Staff Writer

Intel is hosting a presentation on new technology that its inventor has said may reduce water use at the microchip plant by between 70 percent and 80 percent and virtually eliminate the need for solvents used in the microchip-making process.

The company’s Community Environmental Working Group and a panel of national experts are scheduled to discuss super critical carbon dioxide and its uses in microchip manufacturing at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales.

The panelists include Craig Taylor, an award-winning chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Richard Reidy, associate professor, Material Science and Engineering Department, University of North Texas; Gunilla Jacobson, research associate, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.; and Ken David, director of Components Research, Intel.

Taylor heads the team that invented the microchip cleaning process that uses super critical carbon dioxide instead of super deionized water and solvents.

Intel spokesman Terry McDermott said the microchip maker’s average daily water usage this year is 3.22 million gallons.

"We buy our potable water from the city of Rio Rancho," he said Tuesday evening. "But our process water comes from wells here. Most of the water we use is for manufacturing processes. Bear in mind we recycle a lot of what we use during those processes."

Most of the water is treated and returned to the Rio Grande via the Albuquerque city sewer and treatment system.

"This is still below our commitment of 3.9 million gallons a day that we made to the community when we announced our Fab 11x expansion in 2000," he said. "Since then, we’ve been well under that mark."

Taylor has said his process is not only more environmentally sound than the process Intel now uses, but also would allow the chipmaker to build more complex microchips.

According to Taylor and the team’s Web site, a super critical liquid is formed when a substance, in this case carbon dioxide, is subjected to a certain temperature and pressure. When it reaches a critical point, the carbon dioxide takes on properties of all three common states of matter — solid, liquid and gas. The substance has the ability to get into nooks and crannies that are thousands of times narrower than a human hair, making it an ideal cleaner.

"The Community Environmental Working Group has put together a national panel that will update the community on the experimental super critical carbon dioxide technology as it relates to Intel," McDermott said. "It’s a great opportunity to talk with experts in the field and learn where this technology is going."

McDermott said the company has been researching super critical carbon dioxide technology for some time but doesn’t know if and when it will be implemented.

The discussion was one of the recommendations agreed upon by the Corrales Air Quality Task Force last year. The task force was formed by the state Environment Department to assess air quality in Corrales and southern Rio Rancho.

For more than four years, members of two activist groups have been pressuring Intel to adopt the new process as a way of reducing air pollutants and water use.

"We’re happy they are moving forward on this. I mean they have to do something besides making people sick," SouthWest Organizing Project director Robby Rodriguez said Tuesday.

SWOP and Corrales Residents for Clean Air and Water have accused Intel of releasing emissions and causing ill health in people living near the microchip plant.

Intel officials have repeatedly denied those allegations and a report released by the state Environment Department said there were no adverse health risks associated with Intel’s air emissions.

However, that report was contested by scientists within both the Environment Department and the state Health Department.

"We’d like to see them commit to using half the water and half the chemicals they currently use," he said. "It’s about time they got the ball rolling on this."

If you go

WHAT: Intel Community Environmental Working Group Meeting 7-9 p.m. Thursday Historic Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales

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