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US 4,439,410 AGranted
Method of manufacturing silicon from powdered material containing silica
AssigneeSKF Steel Engineering Aktiebolag
InventorsSven Santen, John O. Edstrom
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Silicon is manufactured from powdered material containing silica by injecting this, optionally together with a reducing agent, into a gas plasma with the help of a carrier gas. Thereafter the silica material thus heated, together with the reducing agent if any and the energy-rich plasma gas, is introduced in a reaction chamber surrounded by solid reducing agent in lump form, so that the silica is caused to melt and is reduced to liquid silicon.
Claims9
A continuous method of manufacturing silicon from silica-containing powdered material, which comprises the steps of:
- continuously injecting the silica-containing powdered material with a carrier gas, and optionally a reducing agent, into a gas plasma to heat the silica-containing powdered material, introducing the heated silica-containing powdered material, the reducing agent, if present and energy-rich plasma gas, into a reaction zone in a furnace which contains a solid reducing agent in lump form, said reaction zone being surrounded by said solid reducing agent in lump form, reacting said silica-containing powdered material with reducing agent so as to produce silicon, and continuously charging said furnace with said solid reducing agent in lump form as said solid reducing agent in lump form is consumed by the reaction of the silica-containing powdered material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.