Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.14478/ace.2017.1127

Highly Efficient Thermal Plasma Scrubber Technology for the Treatment of Perfluorocompounds (PFCs)  

Park, Hyun-Woo (Materials & Production engineering Research Institute, LG Electronics)
Cha, Woo Byoung (Plasma Technology Co. Ltd.)
Uhm, Sunghyun (Plan Engineering Center, Institute for Advanced Engineering (IAE))
Publication Information
Applied Chemistry for Engineering / v.29, no.1, 2018 , pp. 10-17 More about this Journal
Abstract
POU (point of use) scrubbers were applied for the treatment of waste gases including PFCs (perfluorocompounds) exhausted from the CVD (chemical vapor deposition), etching, and cleaning processes of semiconductor and display manufacturing plant. The GWP (global warming potential) and atmosphere lifetime of PFCs are known to be a few thousands higher than that of $CO_2$, and extremely high temperature more than 3,000 K is required to thermally decompose PFCs. Therefore, POU gas scrubbers based on the thermal plasma technology were developed for the effective control of PFCs and industrial application of the technology. The thermal plasma technology encompasses the generation of powerful plasma via the optimization of the plasma torch, a highly stable power supply, and the matching technique between two components. In addition, the effective mixture of the high temperature plasma and waste gases was also necessary for the highly efficient abatement of PFCs. The purpose of this paper was to provide not only a useful technical information of the post-treatment process for the waste gas scrubbing but also a short perspective on R&D of POU plasma gas scrubbers.
Keywords
PFCs; thermal plasma; POU gas scrubbers; HF; energy efficiency;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 M. B. Chang and J. S. Chang, Abatement of PFCs from semiconductor manufacturing processes by nonthermal plasma technologies: a critical review, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 45, 4101-4109 (2006).
2 H. J. Lee and J. H. Lee, Waste minimization technology trends in semiconductor industries, Clean Technol., 4, 6-23 (1998).
3 United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change, https://unfccc.int/2860.php.
4 J. H. Ko, S. Choi, H. W. Park, and D. W. Park, Decomposition of nitrogen trifluoride using low power arc plasma, Plasma Sci. Technol., 15, 923-927 (2013).
5 S. Choi, D. W. Park, and T. Watanabe, Thermal plasma decomposition of fluorinated greenhouse gases, Nucl. Eng. Technol., 44, 21-32 (2012).
6 H. W. Park, S. Choi, and D. W. Park, Effect of reaction gases on PFCs treatment using arc plasma process, Clean Technol., 19, 113-120 (2013).
7 S. Choi, S. H. Hong, H. S. Lee, and T. Watanabe, A comparative study of air and nitrogen thermal plasmas for PFCs decomposition, Chem. Eng. J., 185-186, 193-200 (2012).
8 V. Mohindra, H. Chae, H. H. Sawin, and M. T. Mocella, Abatement of perfluorocompounds (PFCs) in a microwave tubular reactor using $O_2$ as an additive gas, IEEE Trans. Semicond. Manuf., 10, 399-411 (1997).
9 B. A. Wofford, M. W. Jackson, C. Hartz, and J. W. Bevan, Surface wave plasma abatement of $CHF_3$ and $CF_4$ containing semiconductor process emissions, Environ. Sci. Technol., 33, 1892-1897 (1999).
10 C. L. Hartz, J. W. Ban, M. W. Jackson, and B. A. Wofford, Innovative surface wave plasma reactor technique for PFC abatement, Environ. Sci. Technol., 32, 682-687 (1998).
11 T. Kuroki, J. Mine, S. Odahara, M. Okubo, T. Yamamoto, and N. Saeki, $CF_4$ decomposition of flue gas from semiconductor process using inductively coupled plasma, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., 41, 221-228 (2005).
12 J. W. Sun and D. W. Park, $CF_4$ decomposition by thermal plasma processing, Korean J. Chem. Eng., 20, 476-781 (2003).
13 C. H. Lee and Y. N. Chun, Development of a plasma waterjet scrubber for the reduction of PFCs, J. Korean Soc. Atmos. Environ., 26, 624-632 (2010).
14 H. S. Uhm, Y. C. Hong, and D. H. Shin, A microwave plasma torch and its applications, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 15, 26-34 (2006).
15 S. H. Han, H. W. Park, T. H. Kim, and D. W. Park, Large scale treatment of perfluorocompounds using a thermal plasma scrubber, Clean Technol., 17, 250-258 (2011).
16 K. T. Kim, D. H. Lee, J. O. Lee, M. S. Cha, and Y. H. Song, $CF_4$ treatment characteristics using an elongated arc reactor, J. Korean Soc. Atmos. Environ., 26, 85-93 (2010).