Use of Rice Husk and Rice Husk Ash for Metallurgical Grade Silicon: The Production, Purification and Upgrade

Abstract

The demand for low-cost silicon which constitutes about 27% of the Earth’s crust and is the second most abundant element in mass, after oxygen, has led to a search for unconventional sources of silicon. Rice processing and associated businesses are growing vigorously. Rice husk obtain from rice milling process as by product is attracting as a value added material for domestic and industrial processing such as preparing valuable silicon based materials since the presence of silica in rice husk has been known for so many years now. This paper presents a study on the production of metallurgical grade silicon from rice husk using various methods that had been established previously, by other researchers. The production, purification and upgrade of metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si) from agricultural waste materials is important as this metal has a range of diverse industrial applications. The production process involved pretreating the rice husk, leaching and pyrolysis to extract the silica, and then converting the extracted silica to metallurgical grade silicon. This study demonstrates the potential of using rice husk as a source of silicon as the alloying element in the aluminium industry, and provides valuable insights into the various methods of the production of metallurgical grade silicon from unconventional sources.

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