rewafe has developed an innovative process for the recycling and purification of silicon which consumes significantly less energy and has a lower carbon footprint compared to current state-of-the-art methods. At the heart of the process is a fully integrated procedure comprising the pre-treatment of scrap, a series of ultra-purification steps and crystal growth. The technology can fully recycle silicon waste or materials containing metallurgical silicon. Laboratory-scale trials have shown that, compared to the state of the art, the rewafe process consumes only a fraction of the energy required, whilst achieving a yield of over 95%. rewafe intends to focus initially (for 5 years) on the production of high-quality, fully recycled polysilicon for solar cell manufacturing, and subsequently address the supply of high-purity polysilicon for the semiconductor industry.
The programme highlighted many aspects for us – both positive and negative. It opened up new perspectives for us, and above all, its extensive network of experts was extremely impressive. We requested meetings with eight different experts, and just a few days later we had already arranged appointments with them. These discussions are currently leading us to pivot our business model, which is proving to be very positive.
Mohammad Chehadé
