Inherent occupational health hazards in the production of solar grade silicon

Solar energy has become one of the most developed renewable energy sources in recent years. As with any energy source or product, there are health risks associated with the manufacturing of solar cells. And even though the photovoltaic industry uses far lesser amounts of toxic and flammable substances than many other industries, the use of hazardous chemicals can present occupational and environmental hazards. One of the most important aspects in the selection of new processes lies in the protection of workers' health. Health risks can be reduced if a process is chosen properly and in preliminary phases. Since we have found that it is necessary to carry out an evaluation of the health risks to workers in the production of polycrystalline silicon for the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells, in this work we will use the Process Route Healthiness Index to quantify the health risk that each silicon production process represents (the higher the index, the higher the hazards). The polycrystalline silicon production processes evaluated with the healthiness index are: Siemens Process, Intensified Fluidized Bed Reactor Union Carbide Process, and Hybrid Process. Our results show that the Siemens Process is the healthiest process, but with the Process Route Healthiness Index values are closer to the Hybrid Process. Apart from this, a guide to the assessment of inherent occupational health hazards in Si(SG )production processes was also developed, which provides results alike those to the PHRI methodology. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.