UMC Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center Breaks Ground for a Zero Waste Future
17 March 2023 - 8:07PM
Business Wire
The first R&D center for waste recycling in
the Southern Taiwan Science Park
United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303)
(“UMC”) today held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Circular
Economy & Recycling Innovation Center, which will be
established at its Fab 12A in Tainan, Taiwan. The NT$1.8 billion
(US$58.8 million) facility will be the first waste recycling
R&D center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, serving as an
important contributor for sustainable circular economy in Taiwan.
After the center begins operating in 2025, it is expected to reduce
15,000 metric tons of semiconductor manufacturing waste
annually.
"UMC has invested in Taiwan for more than four decades,
including in our flagship Fab 12A, the manufacturing and R&D
hub for our specialty process technologies. While we have continued
to pursue capacity expansions and enhance our R&D capabilities,
UMC is also deeply committed to our corporate sustainability goals.
The Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center will serve
as the center of our efforts to maximize resource recovery and
minimize waste,” said SC Chien, UMC's Co-President and Chief
Sustainability Officer. “Working hand in hand with our value chain
partners, we believe we can raise the bar for circularity in
Taiwan, and enhance our industry’s competitiveness through
sustainable practices.”
In the first phase, UMC's Circular Economy & Recycling
Innovation Center will process waste produced during IC
manufacturing processes into products that can be reused or sold,
such as turning liquid waste and sludge into industrial-grade
products. As for waste solvents that cannot be purified, the
thermal cracking process will be applied to produce fuel gas to be
reused within the facility. In the second phase, the Center will
further develop thermal cracking technology that can directly
convert waste solvents and plastics into energy supply. Once
operational, the facility is expected to reduce waste from UMC’s
Taiwan fabs by one-third, and create around NT$100 million worth of
value-added products.
UMC has invested in a number of circular economy initiatives
over the years, such as decreasing outsourced waste disposal by
promoting resource reuse within its fabs. Estimated to lower carbon
emissions by around 5,000 tons per year, this program reduces the
need for waste transportation and raw material mining, while also
mitigating the risks of transporting waste to external facilities.
In addition, Fab 12A has introduced an electrolysis process to
convert copper sulfate liquid waste into copper tubes with re-sale
value, expected to generate more than NT$13 million of revenue per
year. Anther initiative in progress is the recycling of used
photomasks, which are cleaned on-site to remove patterning and
resold as quartz substrates for optical products.
With a total floor area of around 9,000 square meters, the
Circular Economy & Recycling Innovation Center is designed in
compliance with green building codes, and will also act as an
education center to promote circular economy and environmental
protection to the young generation. Using this center as a base,
UMC will work closely with waste management service providers and
raw material suppliers to develop innovative recycling methods and
projects, contributing to a better, more sustainable future through
collaborations together with value chain partners.
About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor
foundry company. The company provides high quality IC fabrication
services, focusing on logic and various specialty technologies to
serve all major sectors of the electronics industry. UMC’s
comprehensive IC processing technologies and manufacturing
solutions include Logic/Mixed-Signal, embedded High-Voltage,
embedded Non-Volatile-Memory, RFSOI and BCD etc. Most of UMC's
12-in & 8-in fabs with its core R&D are located in Taiwan,
with additional ones throughout Asia. UMC has total 12 fabs in
production with combined capacity of approximately 850,000 wafers
per month (8-in equivalent), and all of them are certified with
IATF 16949 automotive quality standard. UMC is headquartered in
Hsinchu, Taiwan, plus local offices in United States, Europe,
China, Japan, Korea & Singapore, with worldwide total 20,000
employees. For more information, please visit:
https://www.umc.com.
Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are
forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities
laws, including statements about introduction of new services and
technologies, future outsourcing, competition, wafer capacity,
business relationships and market conditions. Investors are
cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially
from these statements as a result of a variety of factors,
including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and
economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and
technological and development risks. Further information regarding
these and other risks is included in UMC’s filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. UMC does not undertake any
obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of
new information, future events or otherwise, except as required
under applicable law.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230317005102/en/
UMC Corporate Communications Michelle Yun 886-3-578-2258 x16951
michelle_yun@umc.com
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