Mitsui Chemicals Group Starts Developing Recycling Technology for High-Purity Phosphorus Materials

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) today announced that, along with its wholly owned subsidiary Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi; President: YOKAWA Naokazu), it has begun developing the recycling technology required to produce high-purity phosphorus materials in Japan. The aim of this endeavor is to recover phosphoric acid from underused phosphorus resources and turn it into high-value-added products in the form of high-purity phosphorus materials for reuse in manufacturing industry.

These development efforts are part of a jointly proposed project involving the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Yoneyama Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. and Saga University that has been selected by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for the Feasibility Study Program on Creation of New Industries and Innovative Technologies*, following an open call for proposals.

High-purity phosphorus materials are essential to the formation of zero-carbon industries and societies, due to their utilization in such items as electric vehicle batteries, semiconductors and batteries for storing power generated from renewable energy. Made from phosphate ore, yellow phosphorus is a raw material common to the manufacture of these items. However, the technique still used today to produce yellow phosphorus was developed in the latter half of the 19th century and imposes a substantial burden on the environment.

Japan is entirely reliant on imports to cover its phosphate ore and yellow phosphorus usage needs. Given that securing a stable supply of phosphorus resources also comes with economic security risks, phosphorus has been identified by the Japanese government as a specified critical product.

This research project aims to reuse underused phosphorus resources – phosphorus-containing waste and by-products from Japanese manufacturing industry – as high-value-added products by recycling these resources into high-purity phosphorus materials. To this end, the project seeks to establish technologies that will enable the recovered phosphorus to be refined at the atomic and molecular level, and to be reused in a wide range of manufacturing fields.

Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals is Japan’s only company producing phosphoric acid via the wet process, while Mitsui Chemicals excels in catalytic chemistry. Along with partners including institutions that have a knowledge of phosphoric acid or associated technical capabilities, these two companies intend to further the development of technology that will lead to the expansion of recycling applications for recovered phosphorus, whose use until now has mainly been restricted to fertilizers for the agricultural sector.

R&D theme: Phosphorus recovery and recycling toward material industry

1. Development of technology seeds for the recovery of phosphoric acid from underused resources and its refining at the molecular level to produce ultrahigh-purity grades (Research Topic A)

2. Development of technology for the refining of phosphorus at the atomic level to produce ultrahigh-purity grades (Research Topic B)

3. Development of technology for producing ultrahigh-purity organophosphorus compounds (Research Topic C)