TSMC Launches Supplier Carbon Capture Program to Win-win

To achieve sustainable business, every company should strive to address climate change and mitigate climate impact. TSMC committed to reaching Net Zero Emissions by 2050 and also published its Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report. In addition to implementing climate risk control and mitigation actions, TSMC also actively drives the implementation of low-carbon emissions management within the whole supply chain. TSMC encourages LCO₂ suppliers to design carbon capture facilities for distillation towers to reintroduce the residual low purity CO₂ gas into the process for secondary purification, and then remanufactures it into electronic-grade products. Those products should meet TSMC’s quality specifications, and will improve the resilience of the green supply chain. As of August 2022, 500 metric tons of CO₂ have been successfully captured.

Distillation Tower Retrofit for Residual CO₂ Gas Capture and Purification

The industrial-grade LCO₂ becomes electronic-grade LCO₂ through the purification process in distillation tower, using the characteristic of different boiling point between CO₂ and other gases. The high-purity CO₂ can be separated and liquefied to electronic-grade LCO₂ through the refrigerator, which is the key raw material for the semiconductor process, while the lower-purity CO₂ gas will be vented into atmosphere. TSMC considers the carbon emissions generated from its supply chain as an important factor, and launched the "Carbon capture project of LCO₂ suppliers" in the first quarter of 2021 to protect environment and increase the usage efficiency of CO₂. TSMC encourages suppliers to capture the separated low purity CO₂ by modifying the vent pipeline of the distillation tower, and then recycle it back to the tower for re-purification. The optimized purification efficiency is over 90% with higher efficiency refrigerator, which effectively improves the efficiency of energy utilization.

Establish LCO₂ Tanker Residual Recycling System to Further Improve Carbon Capture Efficiency

TSMC continues to expand carbon capture opportunities in supply chain management and encourages suppliers to design a LCO₂ tanker residual recycling system for their return-to-factory tankers. The LCO₂ residual in the tanker is first vaporized when passing through the new recycle line and condensed to liquid phase by the refrigerator, and then it enters the recycling tank and re-directs back to the distillation process for purification. The facility construction was completed in July 2022 and is currently under trial run, which is expected to extra 1,000 metric tons carbon reduction per year. Also, TSMC encourages all suppliers who directly emit carbon dioxide during manufacturing to set up carbon capture facilities and make efforts for the development of a sustainable semiconductor supply chain.

Diagram of TSMC Supplier’s Carbon Capture Process