SBIR Phase I: Solar Grade Silicon from Agricultural Byproducts

SBIR 第一阶段：从农业副产品中提取太阳能级硅

• 批准号: 0740215
• 负责人: Vera Popova
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Mayaterials Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0740215&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Solar; Grade; Silicon

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop a process to convert renewable agricultural byproducts to solar grade silicon metal in an energy efficient and environmentally friendly manner. The hulls of rice and many other grain plants are rich in silica derived from the soil in which they are grown. This silica can be extracted in a highly purified form from rice hull ash to produce useful specialty chemicals. It can also be extracted to provide a basic feedstock for the production of solar grade silicon for the production of photovoltaic cells. This process will bypass the capital and energy intensive methods, such as the Siemens process, which are currently in use.The broader impact/commercial potential from this technology could develop a process which will enable the production of high purity silicon directly from agricultural byproducts without the use of the current energy intensive methods such as the Siemens process. The process uses an abundant waste product as a renewable material source in an energy-efficient manner to achieve a valuable product at low cost and with minimal environmental impact. Current production of crystalline photovoltaic cells is limited by the bottleneck of poly-silicon production. This innovative new process will enable downstream PV plants to run at full capacity, unconstrained by shortages of raw material, thus allowing more rapid adoption of solar energy at lower cost per kWp. Furthermore, the proposed process will be better for the environment in that it is much less energy intensive and uses less toxic chemicals than existing methods.

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将开发一个过程，以节能和环保的方式将可再生农业副产品转化为太阳能级金属硅。水稻和许多其他谷物植物的外壳含有丰富的二氧化硅，这些二氧化硅来自种植它们的土壤。这种二氧化硅可以以高纯度的形式从稻壳灰中提取出来，以生产有用的特种化学品。它还可以被提取出来，为生产太阳能级硅提供基本原料，用于生产光伏电池。这一工艺将绕过目前正在使用的资本和能源密集型方法，如西门子工艺。这项技术的更广泛影响/商业潜力可能开发一种工艺，使其能够直接从农业副产品中生产高纯硅，而不使用目前的能源密集型方法，如西门子工艺。该过程使用大量的废物作为可再生材料来源，以节能的方式以低成本和对环境影响最小的方式获得有价值的产品。目前晶体光伏电池的生产受到多晶硅生产瓶颈的限制。这一创新的新工艺将使下游光伏发电厂能够满负荷运行，不受原材料短缺的限制，从而以更低的每千瓦成本更快地采用太阳能。此外，拟议的工艺将对环境更有利，因为它比现有方法能耗低得多，使用的有毒化学品也少得多。