Challenge
Evoqua Water Technologies was approached by a semiconductor tool manufacturer based in Silicon Valley to assist in the design of an automated CMP and copper CMP waste treatment system. After careful economic evaluations, it became clear that the largest cost of ownership of the treatment system was the removal of the hazardous waste sludge from a classical two stage precipitation/clarification system. Any method of precipitation produces copper sludge which would be required to be handled as a hazardous waste in the state of California.