• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.147-155
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the benzene exposure levels in coal chemical and petrochemical refining industries during BTX turnaround (TA) processes where benzene was being produced. Three companies producing benzene were selected, one coal chemical and two petrochemical industries. TA processes were classified into three stages: shut down, maintenance, and start up. Data was analyzed by classifying the refining method into 2 groups (Petrochemistry, Coal chemistry) for 823 workers. Comparing the data from petrochemical industries with data from a coal chemical refining industry, while benzene concentration levels of long-term samples during TA were not statistically different (p> 0.05), those levels of short-term samples were significantly different (p< 0.001). About 4.79 % of data in petrochemical industries exceed the occupational exposure limits (OELs) of benzene, 1 ppm. In a coal refining methods, about 15.7% exceeded the benzene OELs. The benzene concentrations in maintenance and start up stage of TA for petrochemical refineries were higher than those in a coal chemical refinery (p <0.01). These findings suggest that the coal chemical refining site requires more stringent work practice controls compare to petrochemical refining sites during TA processes. Personal protective equipments including organic respirators should be used by TA workers to protect them from benzene overexposure.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2022

Silicon is the most abundant metal element in the Earth's crust. Metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si) is an important metal that has wide industrial applications, such as a deoxidizer in the steelmaking industry, alloying elements in the aluminum industry, the preparation of organosilanes, and the production of electronic-grade silicon, which is used in the electronics industry as well as solar cells. MG-Si is produced industrially by the reduction smelting of silicon dioxide with carbon in the form of coal, coke, or wood chips in electric arc furnaces. MG-Si is purified by chemical treatments, such as the Siemens process. Most single-crystal silicon is produced using the Czochralski method. These smelting and refining methods will be helpful for the development of new recycling processes using secondary silicon resources.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.383-383
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• 2009

Silicon is commercially prepared by the reaction of high-purity silica with wood, charcoal, and coal, in an electric arc furnace using carbon electrodes, so called the metallurgical refining process, which produces ~98% pure Si (MG-Si). This can be further purified to solar grade silicon (SoG-Si) by various techniques. The most problematic impurity elements are B and P because of their high segregation coefficients. In this study, we explored the possibility of the using Cat-CVD for Si purification. The existing hot-wire CVD was modified to accommodate the catalyzer and the heating source. Mo boat (1.5 cm ${\times}$ 1 cm ${\times}$ 0.2 cm) was used as a heating source. Commercially available Si was purchased from Nilaco corporation (~99% pure). This powder was kept in the Mo-boat and heated to the purification temperature. In addition to the purification by cat-CVD technique, other methods such as thermal CVD, plasma enhanced CVD, vacuum annealing was also tried. It is found that the impurities are reduced to a great extent when treated with cat-CVD method.