Metal silicon is produced using the carbothermal method, which involves smelting silica and carbon in a special furnace. The purity of the silicon produced in this way is 97% to 98%, and it can generally be used for metallurgical purposes. If you want higher-grade silicon, you need to refine it to remove impurities to get metallic silicon with a purity of 99.7% to 99.8%.
To smelt metallic silicon using quartz sand as a raw material, you need to make a quartz sand block, prepare the charge and smelt using a submerged arc furnace. Quartz sand is usually used to make quartz glass products, or to make gemstones like crystal and tourmaline.Metallic silicon can also be made from quartz sand that has slightly lower grades, but larger reserves, better mining conditions and cheaper electricity.
The current production process for metallic silicon uses silica as a raw material, and petroleum coke, charcoal, wood chips or low-ash coal as a reducing agent. The material is smelted at high temperature in a submerged electric furnace, reducing silica to metal silicon in a slag-free submerged arc high-temperature smelting process.
To sum up, we understand how metallic silicon is produced. Silicon is an element that is found in large quantities in the earth's crust.Adding a certain amount of metallic silicon powder to metallurgical casting can also achieve a deoxidation effect. Silicon also has a certain effect on the magnetism of steel, and with further improvement, it can be used as an additive in smelting special steel.
