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Sharp to remove 90 percent of nitrogen from wastewater at Fukuyama fab |
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May 31, 2006 at 02:24 PM |
 Sharp Corporation plans to start using new, non-diluting nitrogen carrying wastewater treatment plant at its Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture fab in July 2006. The treatment plant is the first of its kind in the semiconductor industry, which the company claims will remove at least 90 percent of the nitrogen in wastewater without dilution processes.
The technology is a combination of Sharp's micro-organism treatment technique that purifies chemicals with a micro-nano-bubble technology that activates and increases the number micro-organisms in the controlled environment. Previously the use of micro-organisms for nitrogen removal required a 10X dilution in heated water to be successful.
According to Sharp, previous methods for treating nitrogen-containing wastewater included vaporizing wastewater by raising its temperature and using catalysts to break down the nitrogen, or concentrating the wastewater and disposing of it as industrial waste. Both methods added cost and contributed to further waste disposal efforts. The new technique doe not generate any sludge that would require disposal.
The new plant cost an estimated 440 million Yen, approximately $4 million US dollars.
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