Can high Purity Solar Grade Polysilicon Be Co-produced as a By-Product
of "Diatomic Energy" Algal Biomass Biogasoline and BioDiesel
Production?
Diatoms photosynthetically produce shells of high purity amorphous
silicon, as well as oils and sugars and starches thet can be used to
make transportation biofuels!
Pure "polysilicon is a high value commodity in the Solar PV and
semiconductor industries.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175801721
Electronics Engineering Times
(01/05/2006 4:51 PM EST)
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Prices for polysilicon are expected to see further
increases this year and next amid ongoing shortages for the materials,
warned an analyst.
"The rapid increase in solar cell production, and rising IC unit
volumes, triggered a polysilicon shortage, [are] forcing solar cell
manufacturers to pay significantly higher prices to secure silicon
supply," said Jesse Pichel, an analyst with Piper Jaffray Inc., an
investment banking firm.
"The contract price of polysilicon has soared 80 percent in the last
18 months to $60/kg, and we anticipate further increases to $80/kg in
2006 and more in 2007," he said in a new report.
Polysilicon contracts are sold out through 2007; spot prices for these
materials recently reached $140/kg, he added.
Leading polysilicon vendors cannot keep up with huge OEM demand and are
reportedly sold out of these materials for the next two to three years,
according to industry sources. Polysilicon, a material that consists of
multiple small crystals, is used to make silicon wafers, solar cells
and other products.
After sizzling growth in recent times, the solar energy market is
projected to dim and "hit the wall" for panel, equipment and
materials vendors in 2006, according to the analyst.
The projected slowdown in the solar market for 2006 is mainly due to
ongoing and severe shortages of polysilicon, Pichel said. Growth is
projected to resume in 2007, when more polysilicon supply becomes
available, he said.
Chip and solar-panel makers won't admit it, but many are feeling the
brunt of the supply problems. For example, SunPower Corp., a solar
panel maker backed by Cypress Semiconductor Corp., buys
mono-crystalline ingots for 80 percent of its production requirements,
and cut wafers for 20 percent, according to the analyst. It has
multiple suppliers providing raw polysilicon, contracted wafer
production and ingots.
Through 2005, SunPower contracted at $108/kg per ingot based on
polysilicon priced at $50-to-$55/kg, according to Piper Jaffray. "We
believe that the contract price rose to $115/kg per ingot in December
2005, based on polysilicon priced at $65-to-$75/kg," according to the
report.
"For 2006, we believe SunPower has contracted at $145/kg per ingot
and $85/kg for polysilicon," the report said. "Although SunPower
has [about 75 megawatts] of polysilicon under contracts and purchase
orders, we believe that 23 megawatts of its 2006 needs are at risk. So,
SunPower is likely to tap the spot market for supply."
For 2007, SunPower currently has about 110 megawatts of polysilicon
allocated by vendors, and 75 megawatts under contract and purchase
orders. "Polysilicon prices should remain high for the year, with
spot pricing expected to exceed 100/kg and ingot pricing more than
150/kg," according to the report.
As some members may know, I have been actively developing methods to
cultivate, certain high oil content diatoms, to make "Diatomic Energy"
from algal biomass derived biogasiolines, and BioDiesels. This
serendipitous ALT/Energy quest began, when Mother Nature decided to
"foam" The Huge James River in Richmond VA in the summer of 2006.
SEE:
http://www.fossilfreedom.com/summer.html
and:
www.biodieselnow.com/forums/thread/32909.aspx
As a result of that quest, I now have a diatom growing in
captivity, that makes oils suitable for biodeisel production, and
sugars and starches, suitable for biological fermentation into
ethanol, acetone and butanols.
Butanols are one excellent form of non-ethanol biogasoline (among
many), which are a direct replacement for petroleum gasoline with
almost no pollution or toxicity.
Also biogasolines, and biodiesels, are net carbon neutral, and do not
cause global warming.
Many researchers, have been looking at algae, as a petroleum energy
replacement.
Despite what you may have learned in school wrongly, no dinosaur ever
contributed a single BTU of energy content to any petroleum anywhere!
Dinosaurs, as well as mammals, and humans, are net energy consumers.
They do not photosynthesize, and therefore do not trap solar energy
and store it.
Plants do that by photosynthesis.
The energy density of petroleum originally came eons ago, from
photosynthesis of plants alone!
Most of the petroleum energy ever produced, was created by the
decaying corpses of photosynthetic plant algae, sinking to the bottom
of the sea, and getting trapped in other sediment to form oil layers,
in sedimentary rock basins.
Replacing all petroleum, with energy derived from algal-culture, is
therefore the most direct route. Algae can grow a new crop in as
little as three days!
All we need do, is somehow, speed up the oil producing rate by several
orders of magnitude, to create a petroleum replacement in short time
spans, of weeks, instead of eons.
One of the real beauties of that approach, is that we can just build
photobioreactors, and create a precisely controlled "Perfect
Ecological Niche" environment, and our algae will go right to work,
doing what comes naturally to them.
Give them the right niche, and they do all the work!
Diatoms are just a subset of algae.
Not only do they make fuel biomass; they make opal (pure
polysilicon) frustules (half-shells) too!
When I developed my "Diatomic Energy" breeder feeding program, I had
to feed sodium silicate to my diatoms to avoid silicon starvation.
Silicon starvation would stress the diatoms and make them begin TAG
synthesis (oil production) to save up energy for "Hard Times"
To "Breed" new diatoms in my "Diatomic Energy" breeder
photobioreactors, I had to encourage sexual reproduction to make
nice new full-sized opal polysilicon frustules for the new "highly
silacious" and extremely sexually active juvenile diatoms.
Think of this like the old Star Trek Episode entitled "The Trouble
With Tribbles"
The trouble with Tribbles was that they "were born pregnant!"
That's is just about the case with sexually reproducing diatoms.
Asexually reproduced diatoms use the parent's old frustules as a
mold-template to produce a new, slightly smaller copy. So each
asexual diatom is smaller than a asexual parent. Asexual diatoms grow
very fast, creating blooms, but with diminishing silicon returns.
To make full sized fresh opal polysilicon frustules, sexual
reproduction is the only way. (but you already knew that, didn't
you)
In order to grow diatoms, I found that I could control the growth
process of the diatoms by intentionally regulating the available
soluble silicon, as sodium silicate (water glass), as well as trace
elements like phosphorous, boron, strontium, molybdenum, selenium
and several others.
If "Cultured Diatomic Energy" biomass production methods were
adopted, using diatoms as the photosynthetic organism, (and by
substituting easily removed or solar non active trace elements in
the diatom diet), it may be possible to develop a "diatomic energy
process" that would create and preserve the diatom frustules as an
organically, and biologically, grown, ultra pure "opalene solar grade
polysilicon!"
Diatoms use phosphorous to grow their phospholipid membranes, and
quite probably avoid depositing it in the frustules, (especially if the
phosphorous supply were intentionally very limited), As it is needed
for
photosynthesis.
If boron were excluded from the growth photobioreactors, there would be
little or no boron to contaminate the silicon frustules. The two
principle difficult to remove contaminants in sand may not be a problem
at all in "Cultured Diatomic Energy" solar grade polysilicon
cultivation.
By using the nascent "Diatomic Energy" Biofuels industry, it seems
we could possibly co produce the following value added commodities;
1)Biogasoline fuels
2)Biodiesel fuels
3)Vegetarian Grade Omega-3 heart healthy oils
4)High quality protein meal to feed to animals or humans
5)Nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers for recycling in agriculture,
or algae-culture
6) Biologically pre-purified Solar grade diatomic opal polysilicon
It would be a real boost, to both the Solar PV industry, AND the
Biofuels industries, if such an important value added synergy could
be developed, to reduce costs, and increase profits, in both
industries.
Low costs and genuine profits, are the drivers, and the
capital source, for the much needed, geometric expansion, in both
ALT/energy industries.
Hog farmers brag that they "use everything but the oink"
Diatoms are silent, but they do "Glint" in the sunlight!
Perhaps, we, in the nascent biofuels industry, can even find a way,
to put that Glint to a very good use!"
©2006
Patrick Ward
27 Dec. 2006
With Best regards
FREE ENERGY
Patrick Ward
Richmond VA
fossilfreedomATyahoo.com fossilfreedom@yahoo.com
fossilfreedomATyahoogroups.com fossilfreedom@yahoogroups.com
biogasolineATyahoo.com biogasoline@yahoo.com
biogasolineATyahoogroups.com biogasoline@yahoogroups.com
fossilfreedomATgmail.com fossilfreedom@gmail.com
http://www.fossilfreedom.com
FROM:
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/gutholmj/applied_geology/diatomite/body.html
Read on:
INTRODUCTION
Quite a few years ago, I used to use diatomaceous earth for
filtering water in fish aquariums. It makes an excellent filter medium
that is capable of removing the smallest particles. It can even filter
out parasites. Although I knew that it was produced from the fossil
skeletons of an aquatic organism, I never gave much thought to
everything that was necessary to develop, mine, and process this
material, As far as I was concerned, it just came from a store shelf.
After having an opportunity to see the Celite Corporationís diatomite
mine in Quincy, Washington, I became fascinated with all that must have
occurred to create the deposits that they were mining and how they
processed it to achieve the end product. It is the goal of this paper
to answer those questions.
________________________________________
LIFE OF DIATOMS
Although diatoms appear plant like, scientists have
determined that these single-celled organisms are neither plant nor
animal. Diatoms are classified with the single-celled protozoans,
molds, and fungi into a separate group called the Kingdom Protista
(Burnett, 1993). Diatoms live in many diverse environments. They can be
found in the oceans, lakes, streams, salty inland seas, and brackish
estuaries. Diatoms can be found in almost any body of water where there
are adequate nutrients. Most diatoms use photosynthesis to produce
their energy, so they also need sunlight. There are some diatom species
that do not contain chlorophyll. These diatoms must acquire energy by
some means other than photosynthesis. Although diatoms can live in
environments with a wide range of temperatures, they are more prolific
in colder waters. They are very abundant in the polar oceans. Most
diatoms live in the open water column at or near the surface (Werner,
1977). When they die they sink to the bottom. The soft tissues decay
leaving behind a fossil skeleton.
Most diatom fossils are found in Eocene and Miocene
sedimentary rocks. The oldest known diatoms that have been definitely
identified and dated are from the Lower Cretaceous (Burnett, 1993).
Fossil diatoms which are subjected to pressure may recrystallize into
metamorphic rock and this may explain why older fossils are not found
(Compton, 1991). There is be an active debate in the scientific
community, as to when diatoms first appeared. In 1951 G. Dallas Hanna,
a pioneer in the study of diatoms, speculated that the history of
diatoms must go back farther than the Cretaceous. His assumption was
based on the fact that by the time of the Cretaceous, diatoms were
already very abundant, highly organized and of many diverse forms
(Burnett, 1993). Recent work, using inferred phylogenetic trees from
18S rDNA sequences, indicates that diatoms have their origins somewhere
around 238 Ma to 266 Ma.
Diatoms consists of a membrane supported and protected by two
half-cell walls or valves. The two valves and their connecting band
form the diatoms silica skeleton called a frustule. These two valves,
the epitheca and the hypotheca are different sizes. The epitheca, being
the larger of the two, slightly overlaps the rim if the hypotheca like
a lid (Burnett, 1993). The organisms extract silica from the water to
build their frustule. Typically, the frustules exhibit complex
lattice-work patterns and partitions of great variety and complexity.
Since the total thickness of the each valve wall is only a few microns,
it results in an integral structure that is highly porous on a
microscopic scale (Hanna, 1951). The frustule of most diatom species
are between 50 and 150 microns in diameter (Benton, 1983).
The frustule, or silica skeleton of a diatom is made up of
amorphous silica which has the same chemical composition as opal
(Hanna, 1951). The chemical formula for amorphous silica is SiO2ïnH2O.
The water content usually ranges from four to nine percent, but it can
be as high as twenty percent. Although this form of silica does not
form in a crystal lattice the structure is highly ordered. Individual
silica spheres arrange themselves in hexagonal or cubic closest
packing, water and/or air taking up the space in the voids (Klein and
Hurlbut, 1985).
Diatoms can reproduce both sexually and asexually. During
sexual reproduction diatoms produce non-siliceous gametes which are
released into the surrounding water. When two gametes join together
they form a complete zygote, enlarge, and build a frustule. During
asexual reproduction the two halves of the frustule separate and each
half generates a new hypotheca. When the smaller hypotheca from the
original individual generates a new hypotheca, it becomes the epitheca,
or larger half. This causes the new individuals to get progressively
smaller. Although asexual reproduction does cause the line to become
progressively smaller, it does allow diatoms to reproduce very rapidly
in blooms. This allows them to quickly take advantage of favorable
changes in environmental conditions such as an increase in dissolved
silica. Sexual reproduction then serves not only the purpose of
combining the genetic material from different individuals, it also
allows the progeny of asexual reproduction cycles to produce offspring
that will grow to full size (Werner, 1977).
There is a wide range of estimates on the number of diatom
species that have existed. Many estimates place the number as high as
100,000 to 200,000 different species. Of this great number only about
25,000 bona fide species have been actually cataloged and described
(Werner, 1977).
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