Recycling of Metal Powder from Cutting and Grinding Processes

摘要

Different types of industry are cutting and grinding metal (for example photovoltaics andsemi-conductor industry). Valuable materials are suspended in highly diluted slurries for waste watertreatment. ReSiTec has worked for several years in government funded R&D projects together withboth research and industry partners to develop processes to collect, purify and recycle valuablematerial from this type of processes. The focus of the project has been silicon metal. The process hasbeen developed to collect fine particles (0-50 μm) from the slurry, apply measures to minimizeoxidation and purify the powder through a series of unit operations. The powder has been successfullypurified from 50% silicon metal powder to give a product of >99% purity with an acceptable yield. Theresults and methods can be adapted to similar processes in different industry to reduce waste andincrease yield.