Resource efficient recovery of critical and precious metals from waste silicon PV panel recycling

Abstract

Highlights Resource efficiency of PV recycling processes is analysed in different scenarios. Processes with high-efficiency can recycle up to 83% of the waste panel. Obtaining high-quality recycled materials from PV grants significant benefits. The treatment of halogenated plastics represents a bottleneck for PV recycling. Knowing the composition of panels is essential to boost their efficient recycling.

Life Cycle Assessment of Italian Electricity Scenarios to 2030

“…Photovoltaic only in relatively recent years deeply penetrates energy mixes and for this reason, data on recycling and on the secondary products market are not widely available. Sensitivity analysis on various recycling hypotheses could be useful [26].…”

Design for Recycling Principles Applicable to Selected Clean Energy Technologies: Crystalline-Silicon Photovoltaic Modules, Electric Vehicle Batteries, and Wind Turbine Blades

“…This section starts with principles focused on the world's dominant PV technology, crystalline-silicon PV modules ("Crystalline-Silicon PV DfR Principles" section), followed by a short discussion of DfR considerations for thin-film PV modules, which hold the remaining market share ("Discussion of Thin-Film PV" section). Various crystalline-silicon PV module recycling concepts exist [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30], including three that have achieved pilot scale or larger: the hot-knife (thermal) glass separation process offered by NPC [18,19], a mechanical-only process run by Veolia in France [20][21][22][23], and a mechanical-chemical process designed in the Full Recovery End Life Photovoltaic (FRELP) research project-see the SI [15,24,25]. The basic design of crystalline-silicon modules has not changed for decades, although manufacturers have created thousands of variations.…”

“…The design of PV module backsheets has implications for cost, performance, and recyclability [25]. One important issue relates to backsheets containing fluorinated polymers, which produce hazardous fluorine (F) gases under thermal processing and thus increase thermal recycling costs or restrict treatment options.…”

“…One important issue relates to backsheets containing fluorinated polymers, which produce hazardous fluorine (F) gases under thermal processing and thus increase thermal recycling costs or restrict treatment options. For example, use of pyrolysis is challenged because the pyrolysis oil becomes contaminated with F [25,[33][34][35][36][37]. Some segments of the PV industry have reduced module F content to reduce production costs (see the SI) [38].…”

“…Delamination poses a challenge to many PV recycling processes. The FRELP and hot-knife processes use high temperatures to volatilize the laminate from the cells [15,18,24,25]. The Veolia process separates materials laminated together through a complex mechanical process.…”