Wacker Chemie has installed new silica gel production facilities in Europe and the United States to carry out value-added processing of silicon tetrachloride
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On December 14, German chemical company Wacker Chemie announced that it would install a new facility for the production of fumed silica at its manufacturing plant in Charleston, Tennessee. This set of equipment with an annual production capacity of 13,000 tons is expected to require an investment of around $150 million. The construction project will begin in the second quarter of next year, with completion planned for the first half of 2019. The Wacker facility in Charleston currently employs around 650 people and is producing high-purity polysilicon for the photovoltaic and semiconductor industries. Wacker Chemie states that with the new equipment for producing fumed silica, the company will be able to further process silicon tetrachloride, a by-product generated in the polysilicon production process, into silica products with added value. On November 7, Wacker Chemie AG expanded the production capacity of its HDK brand of fumed silica at its plant in Boghausen, and also expanded a production line for specialty hydrophobic fumed silica products, increasing the capacity by 40%. The investment amount for this expansion project is 1.4 million euros. The expansion project will begin at the beginning of next year, with completion planned for the third quarter of 2017. Hydrophobic specialty fumed silica products are used in printer toners. It can improve the flow properties, charging performance, and stability of the final product. This type of fumed silica product can be used to optimize the rheological and mechanical properties of special adhesives and special coating products. “Through this expansion project, we will be able to better meet the growing demand from customers for high-quality specialty products and customized solutions from Wacker,” said August Williams, director of Wacker. “This expansion is part of Wacker’s strategic plan to achieve sustained profit growth by carrying out low-cost expansions of existing production lines, while increasing the proportion of specialty products in its overall business. ” Wacker produces HDK-brand fumed silica products at its production sites in Borghausen and Nünchritz in Germany, as well as at its facility in Zhangjiagang, China. The chemical company Wacker, headquartered in Munich, is the third-largest producer in this field worldwide. This powdered, high-purity amorphous silica can be used as a filler in silicone elastomers, or as an additive to modify the rheological properties of coatings, adhesives, unsaturated polyester resins, and plastic sols. It can also be used as a flow promoter in industries such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and food processing.
Vapor-phase silica? I wonder which polysilicon plants in China have also invested in such construction?
No relevant reports have been seen yet. According to those reports, this process allows silicon tetrachloride, an by-product, to be further processed into products with added value. It is not clear how silicon tetrachloride, as a by-product, is currently handled in China
In China, cold hydrogenation is used to convert it into trichlorosilane; the domestic technology for gas-phase silica is still a bit inadequate
Does the new project have a process package? lol
It’s a big cycle~ In the past, polysilicon plants produced silicon tetrachloride as a by-product; for every 1 ton of polysilicon produced, about 13 tons of silicon tetrachloride were generated as a by-product. If all of this silicon tetrachloride were used to produce silica in gas form, it would not be possible to use it all up. Manufacturers of vapor-phase silica both domestically and abroad primarily use silicone (methyltrichlorosilane) and chlorosilanes (silicon tetrachloride, trichlorosilane) as raw materials. Therefore, before 11 years ago, when domestic polysilicon manufacturers were thriving, several domestic vapor-phase silica producers that used silicon tetrachloride as a raw material had no concerns at all; they would accept silicon tetrachloride as a by-product from those polysilicon manufacturers, and in some cases, the polysilicon manufacturers would even provide it free of charge. Over the past 12 years, as a result of these anti-dumping measures, many domestic polysilicon manufacturers have gone out of business. The supply of silicon tetrachloride in the market has decreased significantly, and manufacturers of fumed silica are also facing difficulties – due to a shortage of raw materials, they are even forced to use methylchloroform in their production processes. In the past two years, there have been signs of recovery among polysilicon manufacturers, with a slight improvement; however, most of those that have resumed production have installed hydrogenation units – in other words, devices used to convert silicon tetrachloride into trichlorosilane. Of course, the conversion efficiency varies from one case to another. However, the by-product tetrachloro has a fairly good price in the market; selling it to silica gel manufacturers for use in production is also a good option. In short, the supply of tetrachloride in the market remains tight at present; this is partly because most polysilicon manufacturers use it for their own hydrogenation processes, and partly because it is supplied to silica gel manufacturers for use in their production processes. Speaking of fumed silica, didn’t we discuss it before regarding the treatment process for hydrophobic silica waste powder? Hehe, hydrophilic silica is treated on its surface to make it hydrophobic, **which improves the application properties of silica; as a result, its price increases by more than just one or two times. (Additionally, as one of the top silica producers in the world, Wacker also boasts considerable strength:victory:)
The treatment of silicon tetrachloride has become increasingly favorable. In the first two years, domestic manufacturers rushed to install hydrogenation units to recover silicon tetrachloride, which gradually raised its price; as a result, those hydrogenation units became idle. Although the cost of a single unit remains quite high as the production capacity of hydrogenation facilities increases.