Technology with the Environment in Mind

Novel Wastewater Reclamation Technology Meets Environmental and Business Challenges

SCHEDULE RULES

One of the first decisions made by the team was to define the project priorities. In this case, all parties agreed that Schedule was the primary driver, followed by performance, and finally budget. This hierarchy was extremely important in defining the team's business practices.

Figure 3: Modified selection process
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Figure 3 illustrates the technology selection process that was used for this project. In the following section we review the parallel activities and the risk-taking decisions that drove this process.

Request-for-Information

By engaging in the parallel activities outlined above, the task force was able to quickly resolve many issues. The purpose of the Request-for-Information phase was to gather as much information as possible about the technologies available to treat Intel's wastewater. One of the key tenets that the project team used during this phase was redundancy. Because the schedule would be compressed, and the time to test multiple iterations of technology was minimal, it was important to obtain the information as quickly as possible. Multiple third-party consultants and extensive literature surveys were used, in addition to Intel's experts, to ensure that all technology options were being explored. One of the first activities was to characterize semiconductor wastewater for the constituents of concern. The outcome showed that in addition to the process wastewater containing organics and nitrogen, the wastewater from one of the Fab functional areas and the slurry solids from another area could require pretreatment. Figure 4 outlines the potential treatment and segregation streams.

Figure 4: Segregation and pretreatment options for semiconductor wastewater
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The next phase was to narrow down the options for treatment. Because of the restrictive solids limitations, only advanced biological treatment options were chosen. After additional analyses with vendors, only one technology seemed feasible to meet required timelines: the membrane bioreactor (MBR). See Figure 5 for a schematic of this MBR technology [8].

Request for Proposal/Request for Quotation

With viable MBR technologies available from two suppliers, the taskforce made the "at risk" decision to continue through pilot testing and design with both suppliers. With two options being developed, the development team intended to again use redundancy to compensate for the compressed schedule. This initial cost in both support (manpower) and rental fees was appreciable, but it allowed the team to gain valuable insight into the two suppliers' true capabilities regarding support, technical ability, operational needs, performance, and product quality. At the same time, Intel chose to operate each pilot system with "in-house" staff to ensure unbiased results while also minimizing operational costs. Part of qualifying the two systems involved placing analytical capability "in house", resulting in rapid turnaround of analytical results for wastewater samples. This allowed us to quickly fine-tune and respond to process excursions thereby gaining significant cost savings while enabling development of operating procedures for full-scale system implementation.

As the pilot plants were being assembled and shipped, the taskforce realized that the scheduled startup would be delayed if the major milestones outlined in Figure 3 weren't reached in parallel. Intel then asked both MBR technology suppliers to initiate designs even before feasibility testing and vendor selection was complete. In normal cycles, feasibility is confirmed, quotations are solicited, a vendor is chosen, and only then is design initiated. This new process would prove to have several benefits. In addition to providing competition, this allowed the vendors to supply accurate and quality bids that would be incomplete without the knowledge of the design details.

Figure 5: Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) process flow
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As the vendors initiated design, both pilot systems confirmed that the MBR technology could treat Intel wastewater to the required effluent quality. One key barrier to validating the technology was that Intel's chemical "recipes" were still being developed. To reduce risk, one pilot system was left running throughout the technology development activities. An additional benefit from leaving one pilot system in operation would be to optimize design parameters and test further technology applications.

Request for Quotation (RFQ)

This phase of technology selection was another highlight for this team. With feasibility testing complete, and design proceeding, the task force was confident in the ability of each vendor to supply accurate bids. Each vendor was graded on technology development capabilities, initial design, bid preparation, and construction competence.

It should be noted that receipt of bids was a key milestone in this project. This marks the transfer of project ownership from the Technology Development Group to the Project Team.

The supplier evaluation was performed by both the technology development task force and the project construction team. In addition, Intel's third-party experts were asked to review the "MBR Technology" scoring, to ensure accuracy, and to provide the critical second opinion. When the evaluation was complete, the supplier was chosen and announced. With the design work nearly complete at the time of supplier selection, the project moved quickly into construction. However, the Technology Development phase (including the pilot) continued to present new challenges that constantly altered the design and operations in the coming months.

Technology Development

At the time the contract was awarded to the vendor, the technology development task force had been working for nine months, and a pilot system had been running for six months. However, at this time, only feasibility had been proven, and there were still many unanswered questions. Among these was the ability of the chosen MBR technology to remove certain organics and solids without pretreatment.

At this point, technology development, transfer, and construction became concurrent activities. Due to the complexity of this process and the continually changing effluent composition, technology development was viewed as the key to success. Analyzing and characterizing the multiple organic compounds, modeling the outputs, setting up Design of Experiments for the pilot, developing analytical capabilities, and many other activities were keystones of the technology development process.

Unlike most projects (where design is not final), the construction team was already preparing the site for building even before the supplier selection was finalized. Late-breaking technology decisions would be incorporated into the design real-time and adjustments made accordingly. To offset the expected change orders, the project team initiated an aggressive Value Engineering effort to minimize cost while maintaining all the necessary treatment requirements.

Changes to the full-scale system based on technology development outcomes are expected to continue throughout the construction and start-up phase.

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