Formation of carbon nanotubes and microsilica when obtaining crystalline silicon in three-phase electric ore smelting furnaces

The volume of silicon waste generated annually in the Irkutsk Region is 20 thousand tons per year, and the volume of waste accumulated in three sludge fields of JSC «Silicon» exceeds 3 million m3. The main type of crystalline silicon production waste is dust from gas cleaning systems of electric ore smelting furnaces. In this regard, this paper studies its chemical composition and the possibilities of using valuable components (amorphous silica, carbon nanotubes (CNT)) included in its composition. The study demonstrates that it is possible to separate this product by flotation into 3 components — sand fraction, flotation tailings enriched in SiO2, and froth enriched in carbon in the form of CNT. The structure of carbon nanotubes was studied and their physical and mechanical properties were determined: elastic modulus (2000 GPa), tensile strength (75 GPa), and thermal conductivity (4000 W/(m·K)). The amount of heat required to obtain 1 kg of CNT in electric ore smelting furnaces was calculated. Based on the material balance of commercial silicon electric smelting, it was found that 153 kg of CNT and 336 kg of flotation tailings are formed per ton of crystalline silicon during the endothermic process. Flotation tailings consist of 75 % amorphous microsilica particles. According to heat effect and Gibbs energy calculations made for amorphous microsilica formation reactions, it was found that all processes are exothermic, and the process of solid silicon carbide particles (2SiC + 3O2 → 2SiO2 + 2CO) oxidation with air oxygen has the highest thermodynamic probability. The economic efficiency of using amorphous silica to produce casting silumins was calculated, and its results clearly demonstrate a quick payback period (6 months), as well as a high level of its profitability (USD 819672).