PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (TSX:PYR, NASDAQ:PYR) announced that as part of its strategic engineering partnership with HPQ Silicon which is evaluating its one-step transformation process for quartz into high-purity silicon, the company has completed the milestone pour of silicon from the Purevap Quartz Reduction Reactor (QRR).
The company said this milestone means it has now successfully validated 100% of the project's critical milestones, which also included achieving 99.% silicon purity (2N+) and achieving one-step production of 3N+ silicon or battery-grade silicon.
It said that with the silicon pour achieved, this phase of the project is complete and sets the stage for the client to transition to commercial production with PyroGensis-supplied systems.
It expects that a minimum of two initial reactors, each capable of producing 2,500 megatons of high-purity silicon per year, are likely to be required, and PyroGenesis would be the engineering partner contracted to build these units representing a potentially large build order contract of $40 million.
“In many ways, this silicon pour is the crowning achievement in the development of this QRR pilot plant,” PyroGensis CEO P. Peter Pascali said in a statement.
“This phase is now complete, and I personally would like to recognize the effort shown by our team of scientists and engineers who met and overcame all challenges and delays during this long process. We are, of course, also very happy for our client HPQ Silicon, as they now have final proof that this game-changing approach to the creation of high-purity silicon is ready for commercialization.”
The announcement sent PyroGenesis’ stock higher, up 11.9% at US$0.47 on Wednesday morning.
PyroGenesis is a high-tech company and a proud leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes and sustainable solutions which reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) and are economically attractive alternatives to conventional “dirty” processes.
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