ProjectsNanotechnology and Materials

Research Overview

This project consists of the following themes, all of which aim to develop into three distinct businesses.

1. White phosphorus production business: Spent phosphoric acid, which is mainly discharged from semiconductor manufacturing processes will be used to produce white phosphorus with the “phosphoric acid reduction method (RinPhos)” developed by our team.
2. Aluminum reclamation business: We will demonstrate the removal of alloying elements from aluminum scrap by applying the “solid scrap electrolysis method” developed by our team.
3. Electric arc furnace dust recycling business: The “lime addition method” developed by our team will be applied to simultaneously recover zinc and iron from electric arc furnace dust.

Research Features

1. White phosphorus is conventionally produced by reduction of phosphorus ore at high- temperatures (1400 ℃) using an electric furnace. The phosphoric acid reduction method developed in this project can produce yellow phosphorus from spent phosphoric acid discharged from semiconductor manufacturing processes at low-temperatures ( ca. 1000 ℃).
2. Aluminum is generally used as an alloy that contains a large amount of Cu and Si, but until now, there has been no practical technology to remove these alloying elements. This project will establish a revolutionary new technology that can refine aluminum scrap to nearly pure aluminum by electrolyzing it as a solid.
3. When steel scrap is recycled in an electric furnace, electric arc furnace dust containing about 20% zinc and iron is inevitably generated. In this project, a newly-developed lime addition method will be applied to demonstrate the simultaneous recycling of zinc and iron from the dust for the first time in the world.

Expected Outcomes and Developments

1. White phosphorus is an essential strategic substance in the semiconductor, vaccine manufacturing, chemical and food industry sectors. However, our country's white phosphorus supply-chain is severely limited. We regard this project as an excellent opportunity to resolve a critical supply-demand structure. This project was approved by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on June 16, 2023 as one of the plans to secure supply of strategic substances related to economic security.
2. The aluminum recycling industry, which tends to work on a downgraded product basis-only, will be able to realize highly-profitable horizontal recycling. Another step forward would be to upgrade recycling to high-purity aluminum foil materials for capacitors and batteries.
3. Although 70-80% of zinc in the dust has been recovered from electric arc furnace dust treatment so far, almost all of it is crude zinc oxide, and there are no examples of direct recycling of zinc as metallic zinc, and there are many issues in its practical use. This project, which has the potential to address all of these issues at once, is currently in the demonstration stage of a commercial plant in cooperation with a private company.