Hi Patience,

First let me caveat my answer by the following: What I say is subject to terms of the NDA signed between HPQ and Apollon.

But the short answer is yes, we are developing a better mousetrap and Apollon was the first to truly understand the unique potential of the Purevap process.

This having been said, it is important for people to understand that the Photosil method mention in the Apollon web page, is not the exclusive property of Apollon, but it was developed through a partnership comprised of an industrial player, FerroPem (a subsidiary of FerroGlobe now), an R&D company (APOLLON SOLAR) and different public research entities (CEA-LITEN and CNRS-EPM).  The group finances the project over a 15 years period to the order of about 40 million Euro with the help of government funds provided by the French ADEME agency.

The fundamental roles of the partners were: FerroPem was responsible for furnishing to the Photosil consortium the purest possible Silicon Metal from there traditional smelters to be purified using the plasma process that Apollon and different research group in France have been developing over the years.  Apollon role was to find the best way to transform the UMG Si produced into high-efficiency solar cells.

In that regards the project was a technical success, but for reasons that I cannot talk about, after the merger between Globe Speciality Metals and FerroAtlantica, FerroPem decided to stop its participation in the Photosil project to focus its energies on building a more traditional 1,400 MT UMG plant in Spain.

Through there participation in the Photosil project, over the years, the key people at Apollon have gained a unique understanding of what are the steps required to attain the goal of producing Solar Grade Si, and it is that expertise that is helping advance our project.

This is why we stated in December 2017 that HPQ now has:

A WORLD CLASS TECHNICAL TEAM TO SUPPORT THE PUREVAPTM PROJECT

The formation of a single team of experts from HPQ/PyroGenesis/Apollon with a common and fully defined objective will enable the following:

·      Apollon to commercialize the knowledge it has acquired in solar silicon over the last 20 years,

·      Pyrogenesis and HPQ to benefit from Apollon’s many years of innovative research and development work,

·      HPQ to combine Pyrogenesis’ and Apollon’s abilities to achieve a higher level of vertical integration from the extraction of raw quartz (SiO2) and extend it all the way to the production of high performance multi-crystalline and monocrystalline solar cells. 

Hope this help you understand more the relationship.

Regards,

Bernard Tourillon

CEO