2/11/2026
As semiconductor manufacturing rapidly expands to meet growing global demand for generative AI and advanced electronics, a new review assesses the current state of science, technology and policy around managing PFAS waste in the industry and outlines recommendations for a path forward.
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As semiconductor manufacturing rapidly expands to meet growing global demand for generative AI and advanced electronics, a new review published in Environmental Science & Technology assesses the current state of science, technology and policy around managing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) waste in the industry and outlines recommendations for a path forward.
PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” play a central role in modern chipmaking due to their unique properties and essential function in complex chemical processes like photolithography and etching, yet their links to environmental and health concerns pose an ongoing challenge for the industry.
“Managing the waste from these facilities is a massive undertaking,” said Xiao Su, a professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who advised on the review. “A single large factory can produce thousands of cubic meters of wastewater per day, containing a ‘soup’ of diverse PFAS mixed with various solvents, metals and salts.”
A National Science Foundation-funded workshop held in August 2024 convened experts from academia, industry and government to discuss solutions to the problem. The review paper resulted from that meeting.
“This review is really a consensus statement on where we see the field right now, and where it needs to go for the semiconductor PFAS problem to be solved in a way that allows the industry to grow sustainably,” said lead co-author Devashish Gokhale, a postdoctoral researcher in Su’s research group at Illinois.
Gabriel A. Cerrón-Calle, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University, and Mitchell L. Kim-Fu, Department of Chemistry at Oregon State University, are the other lead co-authors.
The paper, which synthesized insights from the workshop and over 160 published studies, highlights three priority areas for addressing PFAS waste in semiconductor manufacturing: improved monitoring, effective separation and safe destruction.
The authors explored how advanced tools such as AI paired with advanced, high‑resolution mass spectrometry could help identify where PFAS originate, and how they transform during processing. They also examined technologies for breaking chemical bonds, including plasma discharge and electrochemical oxidation, as well as much needed separation methods for concentration, including novel absorbents, membranes and electrochemical approaches.
Many of these technologies were originally developed for municipal water systems, however, and significant adaptation would be needed to handle the complexity of industrial waste.
“Traditional water treatment methods often fail to catch these chemicals, especially the ‘short’ and ‘ultrashort-chain’ versions that are common in semiconductor waste,” Su said. “Furthermore, because many chemical formulas are proprietary trade secrets, researchers often struggle to even identify exactly which PFAS are present in the waste streams.”
“There's also this challenge of how everything is so integrated and how many steps it has,” Gokhale said. “A typical semiconductor fabrication facility could easily have hundreds or even a thousand manufacturing steps, and these are all integrated with each other. If you develop new treatment solutions, they need to be able to fit inside this complex operation without affecting everything else that's highly optimized.”
Beyond technical challenges, the paper identifies several other areas that need to be considered for progress to happen. These include gaining a better understanding of PFAS’ transmutable chemical properties, determining the likely direction of future regulations, gaining access to real industrial waste streams for lab work, and scaling up lab technologies for industrial settings.
Because interest in finding solutions to the PFAS problem in semiconductor manufacturing continues to increase, Gokhale sees this as an exciting time for researchers in the area.
“There are a lot of high-value applications in the semiconductor industry, which is growing very rapidly,” he said. “This is really a unique opportunity for folks to translate their academic research into industrial practice in an area where there could be significant industrial investment and government interest.”
The paper makes clear that deeper collaboration between industry, academia and policymakers is critical for finding solutions to the issues outlined in the review.
“The ultimate goal is to integrate these tools into compact, cost-effective systems that can be implemented in either existing or future space-constrained factories,” Su said. “By fostering partnerships between academia, government and industry, the sector aims to reach a ‘zero-discharge’ future that supports both technological advancement and environmental safety.”
In addition to Su, professors Jennifer A. Field, Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University, and Paul Westerhoff, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University, co-supervised the paper, which also includes the contributions of numerous workshop participants from both industry and academia.
The review was supported by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET) under grant #2432110.
Editor’s Note:
To reach Xiao Su, email x2su@illinois.edu; Jennifer Field, email jennifer.field@oregonstate.edu; Paul Westerhoff, email: p.westerhoff@asu.edu
The paper, “Challenges and Opportunities in PFAS Waste Management for Semiconductor Manufacturing,” is available online at doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c10109.