Linde North America Inc. (Bridgewater, N.J.; www.lindeus.com) has successfully commenced supplying ultra-high purity hydrogen and steam to Wacker Chemie AG (Munich, Germany; www.wacker.com) for its polysilicon plant located in Charleston, Tennessee. Wacker’s state-of-the-art multi-product facility, which recently began operating in Tennessee, can produce 20,000 tons per year of polysilicon, a basic ingredient in the manufacture of solar panels and semiconductors. Linde’s ultra-high purity hydrogen and steam are essential to WACKER’s production of polysilicon for these consumer markets.
“Linde remains committed to meeting our customers’ needs with a reliable supply of products and solutions, and this represents one more example of our commitment to customers,” said Jens Luehring, President of Linde Americas. “Linde has a long relationship with Wacker, as we have supplied gas products to multiple WACKER operations around the world. We are very proud to extend our relationship as the supplier of ultra-high purity hydrogen and steam for Wacker’s new plant in the U.S.”
“Linde has invested over $ 25 million towards our hydrogen facilities at Wacker, “said Dr. Raghu Menon, Vice President of Onsite Investment Projects for Linde Americas. “Our plant has a unique configuration tailored to support Wackers’s hydrogen and product purity requirements. We worked closely with Wacker’s team to develop the conceptual designs and optimize operations based on their specific needs. Linde’s team made every effort to ensure seamless collaboration at all stages, from project development to supply commissioning and operations”.
The new Wacker plant uses Linde’s Steam Methane Reforming and Pressure-Swing Adsorption technologies to produce the ultra-high purity product as required by Wacker. Linde also supplies Wacker with steam produced in the reforming process.
“Wacker operates North America’s largest and most modern polysilicon plant, supplying highest quality polysilicon to leading solar cell manufacturers around the globe.” said David Wilhoit, President & CEO, Wacker Chemical Corporation. “We rely on a stable on-site supply of high purity hydrogen from Linde.”