Zero Waste (chemical/solid) Facility

10/14/08 Clarification below

    For a semiconductor facility located in Albuquerque, NM with input streams and waste streams of research and develop a proposal to minimize chemical and solid waste from the facility, striving for zero waste.  Demonstrate your technology for two designated waste streams (one will be chemical and one will be solid) in your bench scale.  

Background

    Decreasing industrial environmental impacts for various industries is vital to continued operations, sustainability, and economic vitality.  This is a particular concern for industry located in areas where water supplies are limited and disposal costs are not feasible and/or costly.  Additionally, industry is challenged to address the NPDES permits as well as reach a desired zero liquid discharge in their operations. 

Problem Statement

    Research and develop a proposal to minimize chemical and solid waste from a semiconductor facility located in Albuquerque, NM.  Your team should strive for zero waste.  Demonstrate your technology for two designated waste streams (one will be chemical and one will be solid) in your bench scale.

Design Considerations

    Your proposed full-scale design must consider:  

• Corporate social responsibility;

• Factors such as cost of transportation, treatment, disposal, etc. in your economic analysis;

• Include a facility diagram (inputs and outputs)

• Carbon footprint of your recommendations and technologies;

• Factory Chemicals (Material Safety Data Sheets can be accessed via this link: MSDS Ethyl Lactate, MSDS CLK, MSDS Microfab PB-300, MSDS PGMA, MSDS PRS, and MSDS Sulfuric); and

• The 11 waste streams provided below.

Information on the 11 waste streams can be accessed via this link:

Zero Waste Support Information

Evaluation Criteria

    Each team is advised to read the Participation Guide that is on the web site for a comprehensive understanding of the contest evaluation criteria. Additionally, your proposed design will be evaluated on issues identified in the problem statement and the following items:

• Uniqueness of the proposed approach;

• Optimized approach of capture taking costs into account;

• Projected initial capital investment;

• Projected annual operating costs; and

• Compatibility with other environmental concerns and objectives.

Bench-Scale Demonstration

    During the contest, WERC will provide up to 2 gallons (your process should be designed to operate during the bench scale test on this amount) of a sample consistent with typical organic solvent solution from semiconductor manufacturing containing various amounts of organic solvents and water with a basic pH.  Variability in samples received at different times in the process should be anticipated. Teams must demonstrate their proposed treatment technology to achieve aqueous organic solvent separation for the waste stream.  As a part of your proposed solution, you must present a life cycle analysis for any byproducts generated from the treatment system and their ultimate disposition.  The bench scale construction should accurately represent a reduced scale simulation of the actual application to the conceptual site model. Appropriate Material Safety Data Sheets should be available during the bench scale demonstration.

    Your bench scale should demonstrate two technologies. One for each of the wastes - chemical and solid.  The chemical waste demonstration is specifically requested to be a water separation for the corrosive solvent waste and the second technology is one that the team would select and apply to one of the solid wastes provided in the task (Wood, Metal, Plastics, Glass, Paper/Cardboard, Organics/Food waste). 

Written Report Requirements

    The written report is the best means to demonstrate your team’s insight into the problem, to allude to other possibilities considered but not pursued and why and to give the reader full understanding of the magnitude of your team’s involvement with the problem details. The report will be evaluated for clarity, logic and coherence. Standards appropriate for publications in technical journals apply. In addition to the listed requirements, the following must be included in your report:

• Describe process steps in detail;

• Discuss advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of the selected process;

• Include recent references and sources of information;

• Address safety issues or considerations of the process;

• Discuss the time-line;

• Discuss total life-cycle costs; and

• Discuss the operational details for implementation.

For More Information

Contact:
Barbara Valdez, Program Facilitator
(575) 646-7821
(800) 523-5996