Mitsui Chemicals along with its wholly owned subsidiary Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals, has begun developing the recycling technology required to produce high-purity phosphorus materials in Japan. The aim of this endeavor is to recover phosphoric acid from underused phosphorus resources and turn it into high-value-added products in the form of high-purity phosphorus materials for reuse in manufacturing industry.

These development efforts are part of a jointly proposed project involving the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Yoneyama Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. and Saga University that has been selected by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for the Feasibility Study Program on Creation of New Industries and Innovative Technologies, following an open call for proposals. 

This research project aims to reuse underused phosphorus resources – phosphorus-containing waste and by-products from Japanese manufacturing industry – as high-value-added products by recycling these resources into high-purity phosphorus materials. To this end, the project seeks to establish technologies that will enable the recovered phosphorus to be refined at the atomic and molecular level, and to be reused in a wide range of manufacturing fields.