Multi-crystalline silicon ingots with a diameter of 6 cm and a height of 4-5 cm were directionally solidified in a laboratory scale crystal growth facility within a Si3N4-coated fused silica crucible with a growth rate of 1 cm/h for two different conditions of convective transport in the melt. The feedstock quality was varied from "pure" (electronic grade) to highly carbon-contaminated and highly nitrogen-contaminated. It will be demonstrated that under certain convective process conditions even for a highly contaminated feedstock (C and N) a mc silicon ingot can be grown which has an axially and radially homogenous carbon and nitrogen concentration in the range 3-4 x 10(17) C-atoms/cm(3) and 2-4 x 10(15) N-atoms/cm(3), respectively, and is free of SiC- and Si3N4-precipitates in the bulk. (C) 2010 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved.