Globally, about one million tons of discarded LCD glass are produced each year, most of which is buried, causing environmental damage. ITRI developed NaPoGlass, an optimal solution for recycling LCD glass while addressing wastewater treatment.

NaPoGlass is a nanoporous composite made from waste LCD glass. It can adsorb metal ions and filters wastewater without leaving metal sediment. This innovation enables water recycling, and after multiple uses, it can be repurposed into products such as humidity-regulating tiles, deodorizing insoles, and antibacterial keyboards.

NaPoGlass turns recycled LCD glass into a valuable adsorbent through a patented nanopore formation technique. It has a glass structure skeleton with pores ranging from 2 nm to 20 nm, yielding a surface area of about 200 square meter/g and can adsorb up to 200 mg of positively charged metal ions per gram. Metal ions are stably present in NaPoGlass' nanopores in ionic form. As a result, they exhibit ion-specific properties including water absorption through calcium ions, antibacterial properties from copper ions and deodorization by nickel ions.

Chemical coagulation is the primary method for treating heavy metal wastewater. A drawback is the difficulty in recycling the water and metals, leading to metal sludge. NaPoGlass is designed for efficient metal removal from wastewater via adsorption. Its metal adsorption capacity is 20% of its weight and the removal efficiency is greater than 99%.

NaPoGlass can be reused 20 times through adsorbing and desorbing processes or recycled as functional additives. Both the treated water and the desorbed metals can be reused. NaPoGlass offers a sludge-free, cost-effective solution crucial for metal wastewater treatment and has only one-fifth of the carbon emissions of chemical coagulation.

NaPoGlass has been adopted by ten surface treatment plants, resulting in 10,000 tons of recycled water, recovering 500 kg of metals, and reducing carbon emissions by 100 tons. Products derived from NaPoGlass, such as humidity-regulating tiles, deodorizing insoles, and antibacterial keyboards are also being produced. This solution not only benefits e-waste management but also helps pollution-intensive industries achieve wastewater reclamation, contributing to global sustainability.