LuxChemTech participated to EU PVSEC 2023
LuxChemTech participated also to EU PVSEC 2023 and presented a poster on “Waste from silicon processing as a source of energy and raw materials”.
As an industrial partner of ICARUS LuxChemTech is working on the upscaling of new innovating solutions to make Si-kerf a sustainable secondary raw material. Different types of Si-fines received from internal and external sources will be investigated to understand the impact of the waste characteristics on the final product quality. The process is based on the reaction of free silicon contained in the waste with an alkaline hydroxide solution, under controlled temperature and pressure conditions, produces hydrogen, silicates and heat. So far LuxChemTech has found three interesting types of waste as sources for use in our chemical conversions. All three types can be understood as chemical energy stores that can pass on part of the energy as hydrogen through the treatment, but at the same time release their energy in the form of heat through the exothermic reaction and ultimately even lead to a salable product. The characterization of such waste was necessary for the chemical studies, with the knowledge of the particle size of the silicon used, as it is very important for planning an up-scaling. LuxChemTech designed and installed a laboratory pilot reactor with a higher capacity as a necessary intermediate step to further expand the experiments.
