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| Recycle as Much Process Waste as Possible |
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| Water, glass and chemical solutions are used in the LCD panel production process. If treated as industrial waste, these materials will place great burdens on the environment. Recycling them within the plant, however, saves the cost of treating and transporting them as industrial refuse and also saves on raw materials. Recycling allows us to create an ideal closed system with low burdens on the environment. Sharp LCD plants at Tenri site have constructed various recycling systems based on its advanced technology fostered over many years. |
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| Total Material Recycling System |
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In addition to functional performance in development, etching and washing, Sharp seriously considers environmental burdens and recycling efficiency when selecting chemical solutions to be used in the manufacturing process. The chemical solutions divide into thick and thin solutions before they are discharged from the manufacturing process.
Thick solutions are refined at Sharp or at one of our subcontractors to be reused as chemical solutions. Some of the solutions are reused at our LCD plants, while others are diverted to other facilities for purposes such as fluoric acid-type etching solution, which is used for frosting glass products. In applying solutions for different purposes, we not only promote application development and market launch, but also push forward technological development to ensure high standards of product quality.
Chemical components and sludge are removed from thin solutions through an effluent recycling system, and the solutions are then reused in the manufacturing process as industrial water. Waste glass is pulverized in the plant and shipped out as raw material for glass tiles. |
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| Two Closed Recycling Systems Received Prizes from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry |
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At the Tenri site, two closed recycling systems received the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry prizes.
One of these is an IPA (isopropyl alcohol) recovery/refinement system.
This system aims at recovering and refining IPA (isopropyl alcohol), used in the TFT LCD manufacturing process as a finishing agent mainly for washing, so that it can be reused. We made the refining device small enough to install in the plant. The introduction of this device has reduced IPA consumption from 2,900 liters to 400 liters per day.
The other is a drainage recovery/reuse system containing DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide). This system aims at cleansing the drainage that contains DMSO by means of a microorganism dissolving treatment so that recycled water can be reused in the manufacturing process. |
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| IPA (isopropyl alcohol) recovery/refinement system |
Certificates of honor:
The IPA recovery/refinement system and the DMSO drainage recovery/reuse system won the Ministry of International Trade and Industry Prizes at the 21st and 23rd Award for Excellent Environmental Equipment |
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| Total material recycling system for process waste |
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