Patent ID: 8486360

Claim:
A method for producing GeCl 4 and SiCl 4 from optical fibers, the method comprising the steps of: adsorbing, in an agitated tank, a boron compound on a solid carbonaceous reducing agent, from a solution including the boron compound, to obtain a solid carbonaceous reducing agent doped with the adsorbed boron compound; separating by filtration the solid carbonaceous reducing agent doped with the adsorbed boron compound from the solution; drying the solid carbonaceous reducing agent doped with the adsorbed boron compound; reacting comminuted optical fibers including germanium and silicon oxides with a reagent including the dried solid carbonaceous reducing agent doped with the adsorbed boron compound and chlorine to obtain a gaseous product including gaseous GeCl 4 gaseous SiCl 4 and gaseous BCl 3 ; firstly condensing the gaseous GeCl 4 into liquid GeCl 4 by lowering gaseous product temperature below GeCl 4 condensing temperature and above SiCl 4 condensing temperature; and secondly condensing the gaseous SiCl 4 into liquid SiCl 4 by lowering gaseous product temperature below SiCl 4 condensing temperature and above BCl 3 condensing temperature wherein the boron compound is H 3 BO 3 .