The Midwest is at the dawn of a new economic era. Once a manufacturing stronghold, the Great Lakes region is poised to become a leader again, fueled by new industrial investments like Microsoft’s $3.3 billion AI hub In Wisconsin and the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Parksupported by an initial investment of $1.6 billion. IQMP will house PsiQuantum company operations as well as a quantum testing ground and quantum education programs.
Our economic strength does not only depend on people, logistics or markets: it also depends on water. With 20% of the planet’s fresh water, the future of the Great Lakes region depends on smart, sustainable water strategies to support booming industries such as electric vehicle batteries, computing quantum, semiconductor chip manufacturing and data centers.
While the United States leads the world in chip innovation, we lag behind in manufacturing: more than 90% of tokens are manufactured abroad. Severe chip shortages in 2021 have highlighted how dependent the global industry is on key suppliers like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
Reducing supply chain risks is a key reason to accelerate domestic chip manufacturing amid growing demand, driven in large part by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. In fact , a semiconductor manufacturer facility in Michigan in the Great Lakes watershed is under construction in Michigan.
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But semiconductor manufacturing has a water problem it needs to solve first. The average chip manufacturing factory can use 10 million gallons of ultra-pure water per dayor the equivalent use of 33,000 American homes. And it’s not just water coming in, but also water going out: chip manufacturing also produces wastewater, polluted by heavy metals and other contaminants. Data center usage huge amounts of water and energy for cooling; a 2021 report from Virginia Tech Researchers analyzed these needs in great detail.
The Great Lakes region can leverage its freshwater advantage
Regions facing water shortages struggle to combat water supply problems. In contrast, the Great Lakes region can leverage its freshwater advantage to attract high-quality investment and jobs that drive economic growth.
But we can only achieve this if we are intentional, strategic and focused on the long-term sustainability and quality of our water. Otherwise, we risk losing the edge that sustains our industry and our communities.
A smart water strategy has at least two essential elements. The first is a change in water reuse strategy. Industrial users rely on water for manufacturing, cooling and washing; wastewater could be used for tasks that currently use but do not require potable water.
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The second part is changing our reclamation strategy. Conventional wastewater flushes valuable resources down the drain and leaves behind harmful contaminants. A smart, sustainable water strategy takes a different approach, focusing on the selective separation of contaminants like heavy metals and everlasting chemicals and the recovery of valuable mineral resources like lithium, nickel and cobalt . This means we can reuse more wastewater, reduce environmental impact and reduce our reliance on critical minerals from overseas.
Resource recovery technologies and processes are not a pipe dream: they are real, available to deploy today, and we are making continuous progress to innovate for tomorrow. But we need more industry leaders to adopt them and more policymakers to support them, especially here in the Great Lakes, where our leadership in reuse and recovery may lag behind places facing challenges. water shortage conditions.
The grant will help us learn how to manage precious water resources
This is the premise behind Current And RENEW of the Great Lakeswhich was awarded up to $160 million over 10 years in January by the National Science Foundation precisely to lead such innovation in resource recovery. Our engine was selected in large part because NSF understands that supporting the growth of water-intensive industries, such as semiconductor chip manufacturing and quantum computing, is of national strategic importance.
And with a six-state coalition of more than 50 partners, we are working with utilities, industry and research institutions to accelerate progress, including a growing coalition sharing a common interest in policies that encourage and incentivize smarter water use and reuse strategies.
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A smart water strategy can help us balance supply and demand issues, reduce supply chain risks, and recover essential minerals that reduce our overreliance on suppliers foreigners. We have an opportunity to show the rest of the country and the world how responsible water use and economic development go hand in hand. And it can start right here in the Great Lakes region, if we do it right.
Alaina Harkness is CEO ofCurrentthe Chicago-based nonprofit water innovation center and CEO and principal investigator of Great Lakes ReNEW, the Great Lakes water innovation engine supported by the National Science Foundation.