Elkem provided US$ 1.8 m grant to pursue carbon-free silicon manufacturing, aims to license to other suppliers

• Elkem has been offered NOK16 million (US$ 1.78 million) from the Research Council of Norway to establish a silicon manufacturing procedure that gets rid of all straight CO2 emissions associated with its manufacturing.

Silicon-based materials firm Elkem believes the procedure may come to be a "game changer" for the global silicon sector. The production of silicon is a highly energy extensive process and also a major cause of CO2 emissions in the solar sector.

The project will range from 2022-2024. Elkem will be the project owner as well as Aasgeir Valderhaug is project supervisor. The Norwegian R&D institutes SINTEF and also NORCE, and also the pilot examination centre Future Products, will be research companions.

" Elkem's objective with this project is to create a concept that gets rid of all direct CO2 emissions from silicon manufacturing. Carbon oxides in the off-gas from the smelting heaters will certainly be recorded, converted to strong carbon, as well as recycled while doing so," stated Elkem's elderly vice president for innovation Håvard Moe.

" Our company believe that this is a strong candidate to end up being a main innovation for carbon neutral silicon manufacturing beyond 2050."

Moe stated the advancement of the concept is a "prioritised job in Elkem's long-term climate method" and that the company may "licence the modern technology to other suppliers" to help them minimize their emissions from production.