Japan’s semiconductor manufacturing sector is set to benefit from a new large-scale air separation unit (ASU) to be built by Air Liquide on Naoshima Island, Japan.
The ASU was originally designed to meet the country’s rising demand for copper, an element used in key energy transition technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicle motors and batteries.
The new plant will produce up to 1,400 tonnes of oxygen and nitrogen per day from 2027 to support the production of copper, as well as argon and neon – essential to semiconductor manufacturing.
To be built at Mitsubishi Materials’ Naoshima smelter and refinery, the facility will rank among Air Liquide’s largest oxygen production plants in Japan.
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