Industrial measurements of the gas and temperature in Si and FeSi production process

The production process for silicon has been steadily improving with respect to health, safety and environmental aspects due to improved process understanding, process design and operation control. Nonetheless, a deeper understanding of the process dynamics with respect to the process gas within the furnace charge is required, especially focusing on composition and chemistry before combustion with ambient air in the off gas.This paper presents the results of industrial trials focusing on measuring the charge temperature and gas composition from Si and FeSi furnace. The two main goals of this research were to: a) verify a system designed to extract gaseous samples from the charge of SAF. b) analyse both temperature distribution and gas composition from Si and FeSi process.Temperatures inside and at the top of the charge differs significantly from place to place, and temperatures on top of the charge can be higher than inside. A Micro-GC was successfully used to measure the gas composition on- and inside the charge. Off- gas measurements were carried out during the campaign with a portable emission analyser.