Hi Duff,

I have notice that you and many others have develop a habit of asking Purevap technical questions to PyroGenesis instead of asking them on the HPQ forum.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind all that it is HPQ that owns the intellectual property pertaining to the transformation of Quartz to Silicon Metal, and therefore we are the one responsible for what we choose to say or not about the process.  So in the future, it may be better to place your question on the HPQ forum, just so that we don’t waste Peter time answering question that should be asked of us.

Now regarding your question to Peter, allow me to give my comments.

First let me post the extract of the HPQ report you posted:  

"Theoretical calculations, assuming a 100% production yield, estimating the ultimate purity for a series of key tests were calculated based on actual impurity removal efficiency for each test. Overall the result shows that purity of the Si produced under various conditions could range from 3N (99.984 % Si) to 4N (99.996 % Si) for low purity feedstock, to purity close to 5N (99.998 % Si) when using high purity feedstock." 

"The ability to operate semi-continuously may achieve a maximum production yield of 90%, as typically obtained in industrial scale reactors." 

 And now your questions:  

1.    “Am I reading this correctly - that in theory, with 100% yield, based on actual impurity removals, we could range from 99.984% to 99.998% Si?   

Yes, you are correct, using the Purevap alone, our target is close to 5N, but not 5N.  But you do realize that Elkem Solar material is about that purity level… 

2.    In other words, even in theory with 100% yield 5N wouldn’t be achievable?   

No, that theoretical model only cover the Purevap process alone, but later on the document we also state: 

The Gen 2 PUREVAPtm will allow operating at higher and more uniform temperature, which is crucial for higher volatizing rate of impurities.  

Also this new setup, will allow performing additional tests and the introduction of more concentrated volatizing agents, or a new agent to globally or individually target impurity elements

So in addition to yield, we will also be working on other purification efforts. We are no longer as focus on Purity as we were in the beginning for a simple reason, our discussions with industry players have made us realized that once you get in the 4N+ range with a metallurgical type process, all the other N above could just be expenses that are not worth it.

Furthermore, being the only process in the world that can produce in one step as pure of a product, our focus is evolving from purity only to producing a material that can be used to make high efficiency solar cells.

3.    And Gen2, which will hopefully operate somewhere close to 90% yield, may naturally fall short of these theoretical numbers because of the lesser yield?

Yes, alone but probably not when one takes into consideration the additional purification step we will be doing.  One must realize that the Gen 2 is de-risking the project and giving us valuable insight into the effect of scaling up on the final product.

4.    Can you please clarify?”

Well I hope that my answer above help with that.

5.    Also, is there anything to report in terms of Boron and Phosphorous removal in the final tests of Gen1? 

No there was not, as that was not a central goal of the final Gen1 tests.

As stated above in the report we talk about this being a goal for the Gen2 and beyond phases…

“Also this new setup, will allow performing additional tests and the introduction of more concentrated volatizing agents, or a new agent to globally or individually target impurity elements”

6.    There were fewer details in terms of the impurity removal breakdown, and I recall these are important elements.

That information was already covered in many previous press release and reports, and that was not the central goal of this report, so we had really nothing new to report on that.

I will take this opportunity to say that base on information I was given by credible industry players, the closer we get to our goal of producing solar grade silicon metal, for competitive reasons, we will be talking less about purity and more about electrical conductivity.

7.    In short, I would really appreciate some clarification on what you think is possible with the Gen2 mini plant and ultimately the Gen3 pilot plant, and how solar silicon will arrive.

Well I believe that we have what it take to succeed in producing a material that will be good enough to produce high efficiency solar cell for a significant lower price that what is presently achieved in the industry.  Will we reach that goal during the Gen2 phase or the Pilot plant phase, I don’t know, but what my discussions with industry leaders have confirmed is that we are on the right direction to reach our goals, and that we have gone further then anybody else to date with our one-step process.

What I find interesting about your line of questions is that it seems to parallel our discussions of yesterday about giving timeline for investors, but instead of timeline we are talking about technical data.

And just like the timeline, people seem to be overly focussing on a chosen variable and not the entire picture.  This is an R&D project, we know where we are and we know where we want to go, but how will we get there is still not certain.   I would say that we have done a good 50% of the work, but we must keep an open mind as we move forward and finish the voyage.

You must let us time to finalize some of the details we are working on, and I am pretty certain that very soon the pathway will be as clear to all as it is to us..

Hope this helps

Best regards;

Bernard Tourillon

CEO

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