Silicon Reduction

Silicon is a chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14. Silicon in pure form is a hard and brittle crystalline solid metalloid with a blue-gray metallic luster. It forms tetravalent compounds and its chemistry is similar to carbon. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table, along with carbon above it and germanium, tin, lead, and flerovium below. It is rather unreactive, though less so than germanium, and has great chemical affinity for oxygen; as such, it was first prepared and characterized in pure form only in 1823 by Jöns Jakob Berzelius.
Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earth’s crust. It is most widely distributed in dusts, sands, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. Over 90% of the Earth’s crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust (about 28% by mass) after oxygen.
Silicon is an important substrate for semiconductor manufacturing but is also used in a myriad of products as diverse as refractories, glass, and high strength alloys.

Silica can be removed from almost any liquid stream and at virtually any pH within the potable water range so long as the final product is demineralized water. Regeneration is accomplished with hot caustic and long contact time.

Silica can be removed from borated waters such as those found in spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants. A special borate form hybrid anion exchanger is used, ResinTech BSM-50.

Silica in neutral water can be removed by the arsenic selective hybrid medias, notably ASM-10-HP. However, capacity is somewhat limited and regeneration cannot be accomplished with neutral salts.