SK hynix told Korea International Water Week 2026 on 15 September 2026 that it trimmed water consumption across its Korean semiconductor plants by an average of 170,000 tonnes a day last year, an amount roughly equal to the daily household water use of 550,000 people (The Korea Times). The disclosure was made at the four-day show running through Friday at EXCO in Daegu, which brought together government agencies, companies and experts from about 50 countries, with roughly 80 companies and institutions taking part this year (The Korea Times).
Key takeaways
- 170,000 t/day average water reduction across Korean chip plants in 2025, equivalent to daily household use of 550,000 people.
- Cumulative savings of 303.37 million tonnes, exceeding the 264 million-tonne target, with a 2030 goal of 600 million tonnes.
- Water reuse rose to 73.59 million tonnes in 2025 from 47.88 million tonnes in 2022, about a 54% increase.
- Icheon plant runs a wastewater recycling facility producing 94,400 t/day of reused water for air pollution control and other systems.
- Treatment train used: ozone oxidation, activated carbon and multistage coagulation and sedimentation.
What happened
SK hynix has run a water and wastewater reduction task force since 2018, and the figures released at Daegu show the programme has cleared the 264 million-tonne cumulative target it had set, reaching 303.37 million tonnes last year, with a fresh 2026 target of 329 million tonnes (The Korea Times). The company is using the exhibition to outline a 2030 cumulative water-use reduction goal of 600 million tonnes, framed inside the same "Water Loop" booth concept it built around video and graphics to present its saving and reuse work (The Korea Times).
On the reuse side, the company reported total reused water of 73.59 million tonnes last year, up from 47.88 million tonnes in 2022, an increase of about 54% (The Korea Times). Its Icheon plant in Gyeonggi Province produces 94,400 tonnes of reused water a day through a wastewater recycling facility, which is fed into air pollution control equipment and other plant systems, and its Cheongju plant became the first in Korea's chip industry to take reused water from an outside sewage treatment plant in 2023 (The Korea Times). SK hynix told the show it manages water at every stage from intake to discharge, using ozone oxidation, activated carbon and multistage coagulation and sedimentation to treat wastewater (The Korea Times).
The booth also featured the company's "ECOSEE" citizen science programme on the Anseong Stream, where residents track changes in plant, bird and aquatic life before and after development of a semiconductor cluster in Yongin (The Korea Times).
Specification read
The reported 170,000 t/day average reduction is 170,000 m³/day, and the 550,000-population household equivalent is the source's own framing. At the Icheon site alone, the in-plant wastewater recycling facility is delivering 94,400 m³/day of reused water straight to air pollution control equipment and other process systems. Read as a buyer unit, the chip-fab reuse envelope reported here sits firmly in the large tertiary-and-reuse band, where a typical treatment train runs screening and primary clarification, then a biological stage (commonly A2O, MBR or MBBR) followed by tertiary polishing, and where the polishing end of the train is exactly the slice of the plant SK hynix has publicly named: ozone oxidation, activated carbon and multistage coagulation and sedimentation. For procurement, the headline items a plant in this class needs to evaluate are ozone system sizing, activated carbon contactors and the coagulant/sedimentation stage, plus the reuse distribution pipework feeding scrubbers and cooling auxiliaries. If your plant handles an order of magnitude around 100,000 m³/day of fab or comparable process wastewater with high organics and strict discharge or reuse limits, and you are scoping a wastewater recycling facility with a tertiary polish ahead of scrubber feed, the Icheon configuration is the in-production reference point worth benchmarking against. Mbr Membrane Systems typically sit between the biological and tertiary stages of such a train, and the broader sector context is captured on the Industries We Serve hub. For comparison with other reuse-led builds, see the DAF or Clarifier for Fabricated Metals Wastewater in Dublin: 2026 Buyer Guide and the Packaged MBR STP for Alexandria Hotels: 2026 Buyer's Guide.
FAQ
What scale of water savings did SK hynix actually report in Daegu?
SK hynix reported an average reduction of 170,000 tonnes (m³) per day across its Korean chip plants in 2025, with cumulative savings of 303.37 million tonnes against a 264 million-tonne target (The Korea Times).
Which treatment stages did SK hynix name for its wastewater recycling facility?
The named train is ozone oxidation, activated carbon and multistage coagulation and sedimentation, applied to wastewater the company says it manages from intake to discharge (The Korea Times).
How much reused water does the Icheon plant produce, and where does it go?
SK hynix said its Icheon plant produces 94,400 tonnes of reused water per day through a wastewater recycling facility, supplying it to air pollution control equipment and other systems (The Korea Times).
What procurement signal does this give for fab-style reuse projects?
The signal is tertiary-and-reuse, not new biological capacity: the Icheon numbers point to ozone, activated carbon and coagulation/sedimentation skids, with reuse distribution to scrubbers; tertiary polishing skids at this scale are typically quoted in project terms, with engineering and containerised lead times on the order of several months (general industry range, not from the sources).
