New Filtration System At Intel In Leixlip Will Save Half A Billion Litres Of Water Every Year

The Irish Times reports, the company is aiming to become 'net water positive' by 2030.

One of the State’s largest water users, Intel in Leixlip, has introduced a new “nano water filtration system” designed to save almost half a billion litres of mains water a year.

The Irish Times reports, Between its actual manufacturing process and facilities for its 4,500 staff, some 5,000 construction workers and the estimated 2,000 suppliers visiting the plant each day, Intel currently takes in a staggering 600 million litres of water a month, from the Irish Water network.

Since setting up in Leixlip in 1989 the US multinational has invested some €15 billion in the Leixlip plant with the new extension now nearing completion, set to cost a further €17 billion.

The plant manufactures microprocessors for the technology industry, a process that is heavily dependent on ultra-pure, clean water. Its primary use in semiconductor manufacturing is to rinse the surface of the silicon between each of the manufacturing steps.

As chips become more complex, more steps are added to the process and more water is required.

As well as using water directly in the manufacturing, sanitation and catering processes, water is also used indirectly in the manufacturing process for humidification, cooling, and scrubbing emissions.

The water purity levels need to be about 1000 times higher than would be required in a hospital operating theatre.

Water savings are to be made in future by refining the water which would have been returned to the Irish Water network. The new “nano filtration system” is a first for Intel globally.

The new system, along with a bog rewetting project in the Leixlip water catchment area in the Dublin mountains, is designed to ensure Intel is “net water positive” (returning more water to the environment that it consumes) by 2030.

In May 2021 Intel and the National Parks and Wildlife Service launched a blanket bog restoration project in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. The project involves 60 hectares being re-wetted to increase and restore water storage levels in the Liffey headwaters, by up to 90 million litres.

Already, some 88% of water used by Intel is returned to the Liffey, via the Irish water wastewater treatment plant in Leixlip.