SBIR Phase I: A GREEN PROCESS FOR LOW-COST PRODUCTION OF SILICON CARBIDE FROM WASTE SILICON

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop and commercialize a new technology for production of a high-purity silicon carbide powder – a critical feedstock for the semiconductors used in electric vehicles, 5G communication equipment, automobiles, aerospace, etc. - at significantly lower production cost and 75% decreased environmental footprint. Currently silicon carbide powder is generally imported and is not made in an environmentally sustainable fashion. The proposed project advances a new manufacturing process for the domestic silicon carbide market, estimated to grow from $150 million in 2016 to $500 million in 2027. This project advances a process to react silicon powder with a hydrocarbon gas under highly controlled temperature/residence time conditions to produce a pure, crystalline silicon carbide powder. This project develops a sequential two-step process consisting of catalytic pyrolysis of hydrocarbon gas (silicon powder acting as a catalyst) to produce highly active carbon, which subsequently reacts with fine Si powder to form high-purity beta silicon carbide for conversion into alpha silicon carbide with conventional sintering methods. The objective is to produce 50 g of high purity and fine particle size silicon carbide in one step for industrial evaluation, exploring reaction kinetics, gas solid contacting, optimization of yield and product purity of silicon carbide, as well as process design and technoeconomic analysis for translation at scale. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.