Mayaterials, Inc.

Wadham Energy LP

David James Krug

Richard M Laine

Julien Claudius Marchal

Vera Popova

Andrew Stewart Mccolm

The present invention discloses glycoxy silanes as a source of silica and silica precipitated by advantageous chemical reactions preferably beginning with biogenic silica. Alkoxy C&#x2014;O&#x2014;Sare hydrolyzed in a controlled fashion to nucleate formation of nanoparticles of silica. The growth rate of the particles is controlled by various parameters such that particles of known sizes, size distributions, specific surface areas and pore sizes and size distributions are recovered.

Glycoxy silanes as a source of silica and silicate precipitates

A method of producing alkoxysilanes and precipitated silicas from biogenic silicas is provided. In a first step, biogenically concentrated silica is mixed with a liquid polyol to obtain a mixture, and then the mixture is heated. In a second step, a base is added to obtain a reaction mixture. In a third step, the reaction mixture is filtered to remove the carbon enriched RHA or other undissolved biogenic silica and recover the solution of alkoxysilane and alcoholate. In a fourth step, alkoxysilane is purified by filtering, distilling, precipitating or extracting from the original reaction solution to precipitate various forms of silica. In a final step, residual base present in alkoxysilane is neutralized to eliminate the residual alkali metal base.

Method of producing alkoxysilanes and precipitated silicas from biogenic silicas

The present invention is directed to a method for providing an agricultural waste product having amorphous silica, carbon, and impurities; extracting from the agricultural waste product an amount of the impurities; changing the ratio of carbon to silica; and reducing the silica to a high purity silicon (e.g., to photovoltaic silicon).

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Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America

David James Krug