Carbon-Neutral Process Turns Rice Waste Into Silica Compounds
ANN ARBOR, MI - Producing high-purity silicon compounds is today an expensive and carbon-intensive process that requires heating mined silicon metal and anthracite coal to 3500 °C in an electric arc furnace. That could soon change, thanks to a new technology that can produce the same silica compounds from agricultural waste. The University of Michigan researcher who developed the process says it could save approximately six tons of carbon emissions per ton of silica compounds produced. He estimates the cost of the technique to be 90 percent less than the current process, with virtually no carbon footprint.
Developed by U-M University of Michigan Materials Science and Engineering professor Richard Laine, the new technique is believed to be the first simple, inexpensive chemical method for producing high-purity silica compounds from agricultural waste.