Oxygen removal and silicon recovery from polycrystalline silicon kerf loss by combining vacuum magnesium thermal reduction and hydrochloric acid leaching

With the strengthened awareness of environmental protection and the growing interests of wastes recycling, silicon recovery from polycrystalline silicon kerf loss (PSKL) has drawn extensive attentions all over the world. In this paper, an efficient and environmental friendly approach for oxygen removal and silicon recovery from PSKL by combining vacuum magnesium thermal reduction (VMTR) and hydrochloric acid leaching was proposed. The effects of temperature, duration and particle size on the reduction of PSKL were investigated thoroughly. It is proved that the amorphous SiO2 in PSKL can be reduced by magnesium vapor at 923 K to generate MgO, and then the produced MgO can be dissolved by hydrochloric acid to eliminate the impurity oxygen. The oxygen removal fraction and the silicon recovery efficiency attained 98.43% and 94.46%, respectively, under the optimal conditions, indicating that a high efficiency recovery of silicon from PSKL was achieved. Compared to the existing PSKL deoxidation technologies, e.g., the high temperature process and the hydrofluoric acid leaching method, this method requires a relatively lower temperature and the waste acid can be easily recovered. Additionally, by taking into accounts the fact that the MgCl2 in leaching liquor can be recycled for cyclic utilization with a molten salt electrolysis method, it should be suggested that an efficient and environmental friendly process for PSKL recycling was obtained, which shows good prospects for commercial application.