PTQ Q3 2026 Issue

Figure 2 illustrates the bespoke situation,7 depicting how data centres and chip manufacturers significantly amplify water consumption risks in drought-prone states (statista. com). States in the Southwest and Southern Plains face the highest risks (see ‘top at-risk states’ and ‘extended risk states’) to water consumption from drought over the next five to 10 years, driven by high per-capita use, agriculture, and urban use (as reported by ABC News 2026 and the - boxhouston.com 2026). Data centres and chip manufacturers significantly amplify water consumption risks in drought-prone states (Figure 2). Projections show US data centre water use could poten - tially quadruple to 68-280 billion gallons annually by 2028- 2030 due to AI-driven cooling and power needs.8 Building a water strategy that lasts Lasting and sustainable water use improvement comes from developing and maintaining a well-designed, care - fully planned water use strategy. As part of this strategy, initiatives and actions need to be prioritised. The strategy should start by understanding and accurately sizing a facili - ty’s water footprint, before proceeding to optimise recovery and reuse, and finally considering major investments. As shown in Figure 3 , one way to look at a water strat - egy structure is to compare it to harvesting fruit from an apple tree. The priority, or the ‘low hanging fruit’, consists of operational fundamentals: establishing or improving pro - cedures, maintenance, controls, and consistent execution of these controls. These actions or changes are usually low- cost but produce fast results. More importantly, they estab - lish credibility and create the baseline needed to evaluate larger opportunities with confidence. Understanding refinery water use The first step in developing an effective and sustainable water strategy is understanding the source(s) and quality of the water consumed, and the purposes for which the water is used in the refinery. If one does not understand where and how their water is being used, the actions and justifica - tion to implement these actions cannot be determined. This starts with developing a detailed water balance. Figure 4 is a general overview of a typical refinery’s water sources, uses, and consumption.9 As shown, water

Big Tech Construction

Top at-risk states 2026–2030: CA TX AZ NV Extended risk states 2031–2035: NM CO UT FL GA

Top at-risk states 2026–2030: TX AZ VA NV Extended risk states 2026–2035: GA OH CA OR

New competitor for water: The digital economy Compounding the challenge for refiners and petrochemical producers is the explosive growth of a new class of industrial water consumer: data centres. A large amount of evaporative cooling is required to keep servers in these data centres from overheating, and water is used to generate the enormous amounts of electricity required to operate these facilities. Driven by the insatiable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) computing power, US data centre water use is pro - jected to quadruple to between 68 billion and 280 billion gallons annually by 2028-2030.8 These facilities are being constructed on a scale in many of the same drought-prone states where refineries already operate and are under water stress. This creates new and intensifying competition for freshwater. Refiners that have historically relied on estab - lished water rights or municipal supply agreements may find those arrangements challenged as data centres, chip manufacturers, and growing urban populations all compete for the same diminishing water supplies. Figure 2 Big tech new construction growth intensity map, overlaying water consumption at-risk states due to broad regional growth (population, agriculture, urban use), shown as red and yellow triangles, and data centre and chip manu - facturing expansion, shown as red and yellow stars7

can originate from a variety of sources, including groundwa - ter, surface water, purchased from a municipality, or even recycled wastewater. While every refinery has its own unique arrangement and combination of refining pro - cesses, consumption in the refinery can be categorised as continuous or transient operations. When evaluating the water balance, it is impor - tant to distinguish between water that can be recovered

Reuse : Wastewater treatment plant effluent recycle ( C apex style projects), point source water quality upgrades (e.g. cooling tower blowdown, stripped sour water)

Eliminate : A lternate non - water technologies, reduce cooling demand

Reuse & recovery : Traditional inside the fence, condensate recovery, maximise cooling tower and boiler cycles, wash water source selection

Right size/waste reduction : Operations excellence, procedural, preventative maintenance, management practices

Figure 3 Water strategy priority strategy: reduction, recovery, eliminate, and reuse

PTQ Q3 2026