Energy Consumption and Carbon Emission Reduction in HVAC System of a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Semiconductor Fabrication Plant (fab)

• Published in: IEEE transactions on semiconductor manufacturing Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 174 - 184
• Main Authors: Liao, Pin-Yen, Lin, Tee, Ali Zargar, Omid, Hsu, Chia-Jen, Chou, Chia-Hung, Shih, Yang-Cheng, Hu, Shih-Cheng, Leggett, Graham
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.05.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Air conditioning; Air temperature; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Carbon emissions; Dynamic random access memory; Emissions control; Energy conservation; Energy consumption; Energy consumption reduction; Energy conversion; energy conversion factors (ECF); Enthalpy; fab energy simulation software (FES); HVAC; HVAC equipment; Industrial plants; Net zero; net-zero emission; Power demand; Production costs; Random access memory; Software; Taiwan
• ISSN: 0894-6507; 1558-2345
• DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2024.3379949

This study focuses on energy saving for a Taiwan high-tech DRAM factory as the primary research subject. Collecting operational parameters related to various facility systems and process equipment is initially performed by using the developed energy conversion factors (ECF) calculator. Moreover, innovative fab energy simulation (FES) software has been designed by Taipei Tech. This software is designed for high-tech fab energy consumption analysis. The annual energy consumption data for fabs can be calculated. This data is then converted into carbon dioxide emissions using the power carbon emission coefficient provided by the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs Taiwan. In this study, five different energy-saving strategies were proposed. The energy consumption and carbon emissions distribution were evaluated to assess the benefits of those different techniques. The findings show that among the existing operational facilities, the use of an exhaust air conditioning unit with reduced enthalpy value setting, with lowered supply air temperature, demonstrates the highest energy-saving. This technique has the potential to annually reduce carbon emissions by approximately 623,158 kg CO2 and operational costs by NT<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{\} </tex-math></inline-formula> 6,005,764 (189,602 U.S.<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{\} </tex-math></inline-formula>). This can reduce the overall manufacturing cost and is also beneficial for the environment.