The government is pushing for the full-scale domestic production of ultra-pure water for semiconductors, a key technology monopolized by the United States, France, and Japan.

The government held the '13th Innovation Growth Big 3 Promotion Meeting' at the Government Complex Seoul on the 29th. This meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Hong Nam-ki, and was attended by private sector experts such as Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association Chairman Jeong Man-ki, DB HiTek Vice Chairman Choi Chang-sik, Padoo Co-CEO Lee Ji-hyo, and Hanyang University Professor Baek Eun-jung.

At this event, the second agenda item was announced: a plan to develop domestic production technology for ultra-pure water for semiconductors.

Ultrapure water is the closest thing to theoretical purity, with impurities contained in the water suppressed to an extremely low value. Approximately 200,000㎥ of industrial water is used per day in semiconductor processes, and it is estimated that approximately 50% of this is ultrapure water.

The semiconductor industry uses a high amount of industrial water, as 50,000 cubic meters of industrial water are used daily in domestic metal manufacturing and 100,000 cubic meters daily in the chemical industry.

First, the government plans to promote a national technology development project from 2021 to 2025 to achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductor ultra-pure water design and operation technology and increase the reuse rate of semiconductor wastewater.

A total budget of 48 billion won will be invested.

It consists of a total of five sub-tasks, including one task for improving the wastewater reuse rate, three tasks for localizing demonstration plants, and one task for performance verification.

In relation to ultra-pure water production, technology verification will be conducted to domestically produce core processes for high-purity industrial water production and to achieve self-sufficiency in design, construction, and operation.

In relation to wastewater reuse, a 12-ton daily pilot plant will be built for semiconductor companies to develop technology to improve the semiconductor wastewater reuse rate.

In relation to the verification system, reliability is secured by developing performance evaluation techniques for materials, devices, and processes applied in the production process of high-purity industrial water.

Meanwhile, the design and operation fields related to domestic high-purity industrial water production are being dominated by foreign companies such as Japanese companies, and domestic companies are limited to simple construction.

Key equipment is also from Japan and advanced foreign countries. The product is being applied, and domestic products have no field application experience due to insufficient performance verification.