Every semiconductor fab tracks nearly everything, from wafer yield to dissolved metals in process baths. Data drives every operational decision, and chemical usage is no exception. But even in one of the most controlled manufacturing environments on earth, not all data carries equal weight. While water and energy efficiency have become strategic sustainability pillars, acid management often remains a compliance checkbox. The result: millions of liters of recoverable chemistry are neutralized, stabilized, and hauled away every year; despite still holding usable value and embedded carbon. It’s not a gap in visibility. It’s a gap in priority.
Why Acid Disposal Still Feels Easier
Strong acids such as sulfuric, phosphoric, and hydrochloric are the backbone of wet processing, etching, and cleaning across the semiconductor industry. Once they’ve gone through use cycles, these acids are typically labeled “spent,” not because their strength is gone, but because they can no longer be reused safely. Most high-strength acid mixtures, like SPM, which intentionally combines sulfuric acid with hydrogen peroxide, depend on oxidants to do their work. But once the process is complete, those oxidants remain active and unstable. In that state, the mixture can’t be safely reused or even transported for disposal without neutralization.
For most fabs, the simplest solution is still the oldest one: treat for compliance, neutralize, and haul. It’s efficient from an operational standpoint, but from a sustainability and cost perspective, it’s the industrial equivalent of pouring value down the drain.
The Embedded Cost of “Neutral” Chemistry
Neutralizing or hauling acids has three major consequences. First, there’s lost chemical value: acids are purchased, used once, and discarded even when 80–90% of the solution’s strength remains. Second, there’s added carbon footprint; each liter hauled carries embedded energy from chemical manufacturing and transportation. Third, there’s ongoing regulatory and handling burden, even neutralized waste must be documented, manifested, and managed as a liability. These are costs fabs have simply learned to accept because the industry lacked a viable way to remove metals and deactivate oxidants without destroying the acid itself.
High Strength ≠ High Waste
Acids that contain metals or oxidants aren’t “spent”; they’re “unbalanced.” The acid strength remains, but it’s chemically unstable. Conventional treatment methods remove this instability by neutralizing the entire mixture, eliminating both contaminants and value in one step. Modern recovery and abatement approaches, however, are changing that model.
How ARRO™ Reframes Acid Management
The ARRO™ Program (Asset Recovery for Reuse or Offtake) was designed to address this exact challenge. It’s not a single system; it’s a coordinated framework that helps fabs recover metals, stabilize high-strength acids by removing metals and deactivating oxidants, and enable reuse or offtake safely within or beyond the facility. Through ARRO™, acids that once required disposal can be cleaned, stabilized, and reused in compatible processes such as test wafer cleaning or chemical blending. When onsite reuse isn’t practical, ARRO™ connects fabs with verified offtake partners who can capture that same value elsewhere.
Sustainability That Adds Up
Across multiple fabs, the ARRO™ approach has demonstrated measurable impact per 1,000 wafer starts: hauling costs reduced by 78%, 22.9 million tons of CO₂e avoided, $712,000 in asset value recovered, and over 422,000 liters of acid and water reused. Those numbers tell a bigger story: circularity at the chemical level scales fast, especially when it replaces single-use practices that have gone unchallenged for decades.
Rethinking “Spent” as “Recoverable”
Every semiconductor fab already knows what’s in its waste streams. The opportunity now is to do something with that knowledge. Acid management no longer needs to end at compliance. Through programs like ARRO™, fabs are converting what used to be waste into reusable resources; strengthening sustainability performance, cutting costs, and reducing risk along the way.
The next wave of fab sustainability won’t come from new regulations or recycled headlines; it’ll come from turning recovery into routine.
ElectraMet’s ARRO™ Program helps fabs recover assets, regenerate acids, and enable safe reuse or offtake.