Plasma smelting of silicon in transferred arc process

Abstract From the Canadian patent

What is disclosed is a process for preparing silicon using a gas plasma as a heat source. The process comprises a) generating a gas plasma in a reactor utilizing a transferred arc plasma configuration in which a minimum of gas is utilized to form a plasma; b) feeding silicon dioxide and a solid reducing agent directly into the reactor and to the plasma; c) passing the plasma gas, the silicon dioxide and the solid reducing agent into a reaction zone of the reactor; d) recovering molten silicon and the gaseous by-products.