Closure of 3M chip coolant plant could upset semiconductor sector

https://taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2022/04/05/2003776012

by tomohawk • 4 years ago

63 27 4 years ago

Is out true that this one factory is the source of 80% of all semiconductor manufacturing coolant? This sounds horrendous.

javajosh• 4 years ago

Sure, but I bet there are a lot of things like that. It's probably even a "reverse power law", and something that neoliberal capitalism is actually really good at dealing with. I bet right now this minute there is a lot of money talking about what it would take to spin up an alternative, not because they're nice, but because there are big profits available when demand is high, and supply low.

wonnage• 4 years ago

I remember reading something similar with China’s dominance of rare earth elements - the US has plenty of mines but it costs too much to mine them and the entire rest of the supply chain is in China, so there’s not much domestic demand

arrosenberg2• 4 years ago

You did a great job of making the case against neoliberal capitalism. Why should anyone tolerate a system that incentivizes hostage taking? It makes far more sense to have a working government that goes "hey, we need to diversify this sector" and creates the proper incentives for capital to chase.

sschueller• 4 years ago

You can't tell me they didn't have enough time to switch to an alternative. Such environmental regulations takes time and don't just show out of the blue.

Maybe we should be asking how toxic is this coolant that such a plant was forced closed by new regulations?

ceejayoz• 4 years ago

“If we refuse to do anything, they’ll have to back down.”

tomohawk• 4 years ago

It would be great if you could dig up more information to back up this assertion instead of just assuming motives and facts not in evidence.

nickff• 4 years ago

Creating a new option, certifying it for different processes, and getting it into full production takes a long time and costs a lot of money. The semiconductor industry has made a variety of inconvenient changes (I.e. photoresists) in the past for the purpose of reducing toxicity.

I suspect that this is a more challenging problem than you think.

madengr• 4 years ago

Yep, I know of a microwave laminate (i.e. Teflon PCBs) whose yield dropped to 10% after a certain solvent was banned. The substitute does not work worth a shit.

gopalv• 4 years ago

Maybe we should be asking how toxic is this coolant that such a plant was forced closed by new regulations?

The article says PFAS, but I'm going to guess it is Flourinert[1].

The whole thing about fluorinated hydrocarbons is that it can't burn through oxidation.

Probably a very hard thing to swap out without compromises on fire hazard or corrosion.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorinert

legulere• 4 years ago

Wikipedia lists FC-70, FC-72 and FC-75 as compounds of Flourinert. With my limited school understanding of chemistry those all look like they have perfluoroalkyl-parts and therefore fall under the PFAS definition.

mensetmanusman2• 4 years ago

They can burn, they just break down very slowly (PFAS half-life’s can range by over 5 orders of magnitude depending on the type).

mensetmanusman2• 4 years ago

Extremely pure fluorine-based gas is used as dry etchant to produce gas phase SiF4 during pattern etching.

Periodic table does not have many alternatives to fluorine :)

Waste can be dealt with, but society needs a good tariff system to prevent groups from bypassing costs…

ars• 4 years ago

That's the thing - it's not very toxic, that's why it's used.

But it's toxic enough that when it builds up it causes problems that are very difficult to detect.

Finding a less toxic alternative isn't easy - it took decades to discover the toxicity of the current chemical, specifically because its toxicity is so low.

CamperBob22• 4 years ago

Finding a less toxic alternative isn't easy - it took decades to discover the toxicity of the current chemical, specifically because it's toxicity is so low.

Maybe, just maybe, and work with me here, it's not that big a deal. Treating everything as if it were plutonium isn't a sustainable way to move humanity forward.

Anathema to the EU's way of thinking, certainly... yet defensible from an objective point of view.

bsder2• 4 years ago

Is the problem the end chemical or the intermediary waste stream?

Even if the end result is inert, there are probably a LOT of waste byproducts that are pretty nasty--this is fluorine chemistry, after all.

If the site is just dumping those, that's going to be bad.

amelius• 4 years ago

Also raises the question: if 3M can't contain the stuff, then how can we be sure that Asian fabs can?

bsder2• 4 years ago

There is a big difference between containing 10 gallons and containing 10 tons.

There is also a big difference between containing the product and manufacturing the product.

To be fair, it doesn't sound like 3M was trying very hard to contain this--they mostly seemed to just be dragging their feet and doing business as usual.

BaseballPhysics2• 4 years ago

For context, this has been going on for quite some time.

As this article notes, the problem itself has been known for 4-5 years now:

June 2021: https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/175007/p...

Flashback: In 2017, a chemical known as PFOS was found to have been discharged from the 3M plant into the soil. The discovery was made when works started on the Oosterweel project, a massive public works project designed to complete the Antwerp ring-road on the western side, to link the port to the motorways network.
The discovery was made by the contractor BAM, now known as Lantis, and an agreement was reached with 3M on how to proceed.

Goodness knows how they could go 4-5 years only to discover that the planned remediation, which they were only set to start putting in place in July of last year, was not allowed under their environmental regulations.

Next, September 2021: https://www.startribune.com/3m-under-fire-in-belgium-over-co...

The notice essentially warns 3M that Flanders deems the company to be violating its environmental regulations, and demands that 3M engage with its regulators to discuss remediation, abatement and the creation of a fund to pay for environmental damages and potential health damages.

November 2021: https://www.morningstar.com/news/dow-jones/202111014178/3m-s...

3M Co. on Monday said it has idled some production at a plant in Belgium after the Flemish environmental agency issued a safety measure barring emissions of certain toxic chemicals from the facility.

throwaway0a5e• 4 years ago

Goodness knows how they could go 4-5 years only to discover that the planned remediation, which they were only set to start putting in place in July of last year, was not allowed under their environmental regulations.

Because what is and isn't allowed depends a lot on whether your paperwork crosses the bureaucrat's desk just before lunch on Monday or just after lunch on Friday.

They probably had all sorts of preliminary oks and then got denied at the 11th hour because internal political winds changed in whatever office they were dealing with.

laydn• 4 years ago

At this point, it feels like chipmakers are just eager to find yet another excuse to slow down production.

This plant closure appears to have been in the works for several years so it is unfathomable that the chipmakers are not prepared for this.

BaseballPhysics2• 4 years ago

I would not underestimate the power of denial mixed with a healthy dose of arrogance and stupidity.

Based on what I've seen in the corporate world, I think it's far more likely that chip makers convinced themselves that, given how critical this plant is to the chip supply chain, either 3M would finally address the issue or the Belgium government would blink, and so continued to operate as usual.

Frankly, I expect 3M thought the same, hence their half-assed and illegal attempt to fix the issue.

Closure of 3M chip coolant plant could upset semiconductor sector

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