ECOVE Purifies＆Reuses Waste Solvent to Increase Resource Cycling Efficiency

To improve resource recycling rate and sustainable living environment,in 2018, ECOVE established ECOVE Solvent Recycling Corp. to offer waste solvent purification and reuse services, so as to help return waste liquids to the market supply chain as industrial raw materials, thereby reducing losses of petrochemical raw materials and earth resources.

In recent years, Taiwan’s most important and internationally competitive export industries are electronics, electronic components, computers, electronic products, and optical products manufacturing, where the electronic component manufacturing industry accounts for approximately 30 percent of Taiwan’s GDP. However, behind such a high output value also lies the production of large amounts of liquid waste. Most chemicals and solvents used in the relevant processes do not appear on these products but become waste after used, thereby resulting in environmental load and impact.

Taking into consideration of environmental friendly technologies, ECOVE concentrates low-concentration waste isopropanol into 85% industrial-grade isopropanol by means of separation by distillation at the front end, where the finished product can be reused as industrial-grade solvent for various purposes, including cleaning and decontamination, preparing chemical raw materials, as well as diluting and mixing paint. At the same time, 85% industrial-grade isopropanol can be further processed by means of extractive distillation for azeotrope breaking, in which water is separated from this isopropanol by an extractant with a high boiling point through a high-energy efficiency extractive distillation equipment to concentrate this isopropanol to 99.5% industrial-grade isopropanol.

By investing in the waste solvent recycling and reuse business, ECOVE expects to recycle approximately 6,700 tons of waste solvent every year in the future and concentrates them into industrial-grade raw materials and returned to the market supply chain. Not only will this greatly reduce losses of earth resources, but will also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by approximately 4,900 metric tons every year.