India’s semiconductor push will need a new approach to water management: CN Water

With India transitioning from semiconductor aspirations to establishing a real domestic fab ecosystem, water is becoming a vital component of the manufacturing infrastructure puzzle. Semiconductor fabrication demands not only ultrapure water (UPW) but also a highly dependable, integrated system that handles source-water variability, purification, recovery, reuse, and wastewater.

CN Water has spent over 35 years solving India's difficult water problems across industries. Semiconductor manufacturing has very stringent purity requirements that CN Water says it has been addressing for a long time, and many of the underlying challenges. Source-water variability, reliability, validation, monitoring, lifecycle management along with sustainability - are all familiar territory says Shoeb Kurawadwala, Founder and Managing Director, CN Water. In this conversation, Kurawadwala outlines the water challenges fabs are likely to face, the case for greater localisation, and how digitalisation, recovery, and end-to-end water management could shape the next generation of semiconductor infrastructure in India. Edited excerpts.

Economic Times (ET): The semiconductor water challenge is no longer just about producing ultrapure water, but managing what happens before and after the UPW stage. How is CN Water thinking about the water cycle as one integrated system rather than a set of standalone treatment plants?


Shoeb Kurawadwala (SK): We have always believed that a high-purity water system cannot be looked at in isolation. Our experience in the pharmaceutical industry has taught us that what happens before the purification stage and what happens after it are equally important.

The same principle applies to semiconductors, perhaps even more critically. You have to start with the source water, understand its quality and variability, design the right pre-treatment, and then build the purification system around those conditions. At the other end, the wastewater and reject streams need to be looked at for treatment, recovery, and reuse.

That is really the thinking behind our partnership with REMONDIS. CN Water brings its experience in high-purity water and Indian water conditions, while REMONDIS brings its expertise in wastewater treatment, recycling and ZLD. Together, we can look at the water cycle as one system rather than as separate plants operating next to each other.

For us, the larger objective is simple: make the entire water system more reliable, more efficient and more sustainable over its lifecycle.

ET: With multiple semiconductor fabs expected to come up in India, what do you see as the biggest water-related bottleneck for the industry over the next five years? Is it availability, quality, reliability, reuse or wastewater management?

SK: I would say the challenge is really a combination of availability and reliability. India has very different water conditions across regions, and source-water quality can also change considerably. For a semiconductor fab, you cannot afford that variability to find its way into a critical manufacturing process. So having a reliable supply of water of the right quality will be fundamental.

We see a similar issue in pharma plants where water directly affects product quality, compliance, and production continuity. That is why companies invest so heavily in validated water systems and lifecycle management. In semiconductors, this becomes even more demanding. At the same time, fabs will face increasing pressure to reduce water consumption and wastewater discharge. So the industry will need to think about availability, recovery, and reuse together rather than solving each problem separately.

ET: How important will localisation be in semiconductor water infrastructure? What capabilities, technologies, and components does India still need to develop domestically if fabs are to avoid dependence on imported water-system expertise?

SK: Localisation will be very important. But I don't think localisation necessarily means that every component has to be manufactured in India.

India already has a strong base of engineering and execution capabilities. At CN Water, we have been designing, commissioning, and managing critical water systems in India for over three decades. We work with some of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, and our systems have to meet very demanding global standards.

What we need to build further for semiconductors is deeper local capability around specialised technologies, instrumentation, controls, advanced components, and semiconductor-specific engineering.

There will always be areas where global technology partnerships make sense. We have followed that model for many years. The important thing is that engineering, integration, commissioning, operations, and lifecycle support should increasingly be available in India.

That, to me, is the more meaningful definition of localisation- a mix of global and local technology, aligned to global standards, combined with strong Indian engineering and execution capability.

ET: Semiconductor fabs cannot afford disruptions caused by variations in source-water quality. How is CN Water designing systems to deal with the variability of Indian water sources and ensure consistent performance at the UPW stage?

SK: This is something we have dealt with for years across thousands of installations in India. Source water variability and microbial control are among the toughest challenges for critical utilities in India, and they need to be fundamental considerations in system design. The first step is understanding the source in detail - its organic chemistry, TOC, hardness, alkalinity, silica, metals, dissolved gases, microbiological profile, and other risk factors. The pre-treatment and purification stages must then be designed as an integrated system. The UPW system is actually closer to the end of the process, and not the place where you try to solve every source water quality problem.

Continuous monitoring is the other important piece. We have a robust digital assurance approach, powered by our CNtinel platform, which gives plant operators real-time visibility of critical parameters such as conductivity, pH, temperature, TOC and microbial contamination.

The objective is to have enough visibility into the system to identify a deviation early, anywhere in the water system, and take proactive action before it becomes a larger operational issue.

ET: The CN Water-REMONDIS partnership brings together UPW expertise with wastewater treatment, recovery and ZLD capabilities. Where do you see the greatest opportunity for innovation when these two ends of the water cycle are designed together?

SK: The innovation lies in designing these as connected parts of a single water journey. It allows multiple factors–source-water conditions, process requirements, water quality, wastewater composition, recovery potential, energy and resource use - to be considered together at the design stage itself. And then, having a unified digital view of the water journey can connect many dots and provide visibility into how water moves and is recovered across the entire manufacturing facility. For example, it can help relate source water variability to the performance of downstream purification systems, or connect water purification processes at one stage with the characteristics and treatment requirements of the wastewater streams they generate.

Traditionally, this entire chain is fragmented, with little visibility into how decisions or performance in one part of the system affect downstream processes. You lose the ability to optimise the water journey as a whole - across recovery and reuse, treatment loads, chemicals and energy consumption. REMONDIS is a global leader that brings decades of expertise in industrial wastewater treatment and recovery, and our partnership enables an end-to-end approach to water operations – from source to ZLD.

ET: As fabs come under increasing pressure to reduce their water footprint, how far can water recovery and reuse realistically go in a semiconductor facility without compromising UPW quality or manufacturing yields?

SK: If you look at recovery globally, semiconductor companies are not looking at it as one single loop back into UPW. You don't have to put everything back into the UPW system to get very high levels of water recovery. There are many high-consumption applications where you don't need UPW quality, like cooling towers, scrubbers, and other process applications.

That is where I think there is a lot of opportunity. You can segregate the streams better, recover water where it makes sense, and feed it back to certain applications. Some streams may need relatively little additional treatment; some may need more treatment. And sometimes, it may be possible to direct recovery water to UPW systems. But a lot of the opportunity is outside the UPW loop, where you have very large volumes of water being consumed.

The approach should be to look at the entire water balance of the fab - understand the different streams, segregate them properly, recover water to the extent feasible, and match each recovered stream to the right application. That is how you can push towards ZLD without compromising on UPW quality or reliability.

ET: How is digitalisation changing the way a semiconductor water plant will be operated? Can real-time data and predictive analytics eventually allow operators to anticipate water-quality problems before they affect fab operations?

SK: We are using our CNtinel digital platform at over 400 sites today. We are bringing a lot of the day-to-day operations onto one digital platform–such as paperless operations, remote monitoring, and online service request management. The real value comes from the high volumes of sensor data are able to collect in real-time now. We are also using AI models to predict the life and health of components. So instead of waiting for a component to fail, we can plan the maintenance and even arrange the spare in advance.

In our client sites, we have brought response time down from around three hours to about 15 minutes, and we are targeting 99.9% system uptime. Once you have that kind of visibility across the system, you can also start looking at where operating costs can be optimized, whether it is maintenance, spares, or quality management.

For a semiconductor fab, access to real-time data makes a big difference to the operations team. If you can proactively identify a shift in equipment performance or feed-water conditions before it crosses a critical threshold, you have an opportunity to intervene at different levels–like scheduling maintenance, starting an immediate investigation, or replacing a faulty component. This can make a real difference across water quality, downtime, and audit readiness. When you have a clear history of system performance, you have much better traceability of what happened, when it happened, and how it was addressed. So, the value goes well beyond monitoring the water plant.

ET: Looking ahead, what would success for CN Water in India’s semiconductor ecosystem look like three years from now in terms of projects, capabilities, and the role you want the company to play in the industry’s water infrastructure?

SK: The semiconductor ecosystem in India is still in its initial stage, so this is a big opportunity to bring real innovation in water operations. I also think the water process itself will become increasingly interconnected and data-centric. So for us, this is a long-term opportunity to become a digitally driven water engineering partner to the semiconductor industry. Three years from now, if a semiconductor manufacturer thinks about its water infrastructure and sees CN Water as the ideal water process partner, I would consider that a very good measure of success.