TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) began operations at its new water recycling plant at the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan on Monday (Sept. 19).

The facility is the first in the world to produce recycled water capable for use in the semiconductor manufacturing process, according to CNA. Initially, the plant is slated to produce 5,000 tons of recycled industrial water daily in October, while that number is expected to increase to 20,000 tons a day in 2023.

The plant also expects in the future to recycle used household water from Yongkang and Anping districts in Tainan with the goal of producing 67,000 tons of recycled water per day. The water recycling facility will also look to use excess heat from nearby incinerators to produce an additional 36,000 tons of recycled water a day.

The water recycling plant took eight years to build due to the difficulties of processing industrial water into water clean enough to be used again in chip manufacturing, according to Arthur Chuang (莊子壽), vice president of the facility division at TSMC. Chuang added the company currently is able to recycle a drop of water 3.5 times.

Chuang said the Taiwanese chipmaker is committed to exploring and diversifying where it gets its water so that it can further improve water efficiency. The world’s largest contract chipmaker has set a goal of having 60% of its water usage come from recycled water by the end of 2030.