Water Saving | Case Studies

Semiconductor manufacturing uses large amounts of ultrapure water in processes such as cleaning and also uses a lot of water to cool manufacturing equipment; therefore reducing water usage is a significant challenge for the customer. The Kurita Group proposed reclaimed water supply services to reclaim and reuse wastewater generated in semiconductor manufacturing processes, thereby contributing to reducing the amount of tap water the customer uses.

Wastewater from factories is usually purified by wastewater treatment systems to a certain quality level that does not affect the surrounding environment before being released into sewerage and rivers. If this wastewater can be reused as "reclaimed water," it is possible to reduce tap water usage significantly. However, factory wastewater carries a high burden and a large fluctuation in water quality. Therefore, because the wastewater reclamation system consists of many parts and uses many kind of chemicals, reducing workload for stable system operation and maintenance, as well as initial and running costs, became an issue for customers considering installing the system.

The Kurita Group’s standardized wastewater reclamation system is a simple structure, consisting of pre-treatment equipment and a demineralizer, that combines water treatment technologies of chemicals and equipment and utilizes unique water treatment chemicals, to enable stable wastewater reclamation. The reclaimed water supply service installs the system in the customer's sites as Kurita's asset and undertakes all operation management and maintenance to provide recycled water with the quantity and quality required by the customer for a flat monthly fee. To apply the service, Kurita and the customer investigated the reclaimable wastewater source, quantity and quality, and selected places to use the recycled water according to its quality. In addition, to use the recycled water for the cooling tower as make-up water, cooling water quality management by the S.sensing™ Opti, a remote monitoring system, was adopted as part of the service. As a result, the water using efficiency in the factory increases, and it is expected to reduce the use of tap water by 40% and wastewater by 30%.