Resource recovery from urban stock, the example of cadmium and tellurium from thin film module recycling

Simon, Franz‐Georg; Holm, Olaf; Berger, Wolfgang

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2012.12.025

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This observed behaviour is in compliance with Zeng et al (2004), who studied the pyrolysis of the EVA in order to recycle PV modules. It is also in compliance with Simon et al (2013), where the authors remove the polymeric layers of second generation modules using temperatures equal to 500 ºC and with Allen et al (2000) who studied the thermal oxidation of EVA polymers.…”

Section: Materials Separationmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Selenium dioxide obtained is then reduced to produce high purity selenium. Simon et al (2013) also stresses the importance of recycling electronic waste given the constant concern of scarcity of natural resources. The author attests to the difficulty in implementing CdTe recovery processes from thin film modules because of the small quantities of these materials present in each module.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Photovoltaic solar panels of crystalline silicon: Characterization and separation

2016

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Photovoltaic panels have a limited lifespan and estimates show large amounts of solar modules will be discarded as electronic waste in a near future. In order to retrieve important raw materials, reduce production costs and environmental impacts, recycling such devices is important. Initially, this article investigates which silicon photovoltaic module's components are recyclable through their characterization using X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersion spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Next, different separation methods are tested to favour further recycling processes. The glass was identified as soda-lime glass, the metallic filaments were identified as tin-lead coated copper, the panel cells were made of silicon and had silver filaments attached to it and the modules' frames were identified as aluminium, all of which are recyclable. Moreover, three different components segregation methods have been studied. Mechanical milling followed by sieving was able to separate silver from copper while chemical separation using sulphuric acid was able to detach the semiconductor material. A thermo gravimetric analysis was performed to evaluate the use of a pyrolysis step prior to the component's removal. The analysis showed all polymeric fractions present degrade at 500 °C.

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Section: Materials Separationmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photovoltaic solar panels of crystalline silicon: Characterization and separation

2016

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“…With this in mind, it is important to consider the recycling of these materials for future work to reduce environmental impacts, such as the ADP . The environmental outcomes from the treatment of secondary (recycled raw materials) metals are much lower than those from the primary production .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A life cycle assessment of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Lunardi

Ho‐Baillie

Alvarez-Gaitan

et al. 2017

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Given the rapid progress in perovskite solar cells in recent years, perovskite/silicon (Si) tandem structure has been proposed to be a potentially cost‐effective improvement on Si solar cells because of its higher efficiency at a minimal additional cost. As part of the evaluation, it is important to conduct a life cycle assessment on such technology in order to guide research efforts towards cell designs with minimum environmental impacts. Here, we carry out a life cycle assessment to assess global warming, human toxicity, freshwater eutrophication and ecotoxicity and abiotic depletion potential impacts and energy payback time associated with three perovskite/Si tandem cell structures using silver (Ag), gold (Au) and aluminium (Al) as top electrodes compared with p–n junction and hetero‐junction with intrinsic inverted layer Si solar cells. It was found that the replacement of the metal electrode with indium tin oxide/metal grid in the tandem cell reduces the environmental impacts significantly compared with the perovskite cell. For all the impacts assessed, we conclude that the perovskite/Si tandem using Al as top electrode has better environmental outcomes, including energy payback time, when compared with the other tandem structures studied. Use of Al in preference to noble metals for contacts, Si p–n junction in preference to intrinsic inverted layer and the avoidance of 2,20,7,70‐tetrakis(N,N‐di‐p‐methoxyphenylamine)9,90‐spirobifluorene (Spiro‐OMeTAD) are environmentally beneficial. The key result found of this work is that the most important factor for the better environmental impacts of these tandem solar cells is the transparency and electrical conductivity of the perovskite layer after it fails. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…Most studies on element recycling have focused on recycling precious metals (e.g., Au, Ag, Pd, and Pt), scarce elements (e.g., Pt, Ir, Os, Pd, Rh, Ru, Au, Re, and Te) and rare‐earth from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). [ 133–136 ] For this purpose, several approaches such as hydrazine reduction and bacterial recovery methods were proposed, which will be reviewed in this section. Following this overview, we discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with elemental recovery from EoL TE modules.…”

Section: Recycling Of Scarce Elements From Te Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waste Recycling in Thermoelectric Materials

Bahrami

Schierning

Nielsch

2020

Advanced Energy Materials

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power plants, factories, motor vehicles, computers, or even human bodies into electricity. TEGs are suitable for small applications because of their compatibility, simplicity, and scalability. For example, electricity can be generated from small heat sources and by taking advantage of small temperature differences for powering wristwatches or wearable devices such as miniaturized accelerometers or electroencephalography (EEG) devices. [3,4] However, low efficiency and high fabrication cost are the main disadvantages of TEGs which hinder their vast application in the market. Although many studies have explored the ways to increase the efficiency of TEGs in converting the thermal to electric energy, cost of TE materials synthesis and miniaturized TEGs fabrication has not been addressed widely.TEGs require materials with high electrical conductivities and low thermal conductivities, as well as high thermopower (Seebeck coefficient, S) which in turn constrains the types of materials that can be used as a TE material. The direct conversion of thermal to electrical energy in response to a temperature gradient across a material can be calculated by using the following equationwhere ΔV is the generated voltage, S is the Seebeck coefficient or thermopower, and ΔT is the temperature difference. The performance of a TE material is defined by the dimensionless figure of merit (zT), which relates the material properties to its conversion efficiency, in the following way 2 l e ZT S T σ κ κ ) ( = +where σ is the electrical conductivity, κ l and κ e are the lattice and electronic contributions to the thermal conductivity of TE material, respectively, and T is the absolute temperature. High S 2 σ (power factor, PF) and low thermal conductivity, κ = κ l + κ e , lead to better performance. In practice, however, the mutual dependence between these material properties makes an optimization of zT difficult. For many decades since the 1950s, when research and development of bulk homogenous materials for TE applications started to increase, research and development efforts focused on elements derived from raw materials for synthesizing TE materials. The compounds synthesized from raw elements such as Thermoelectric (TE) technology enables the efficient conversion of waste heat generated in homes, transport, and industry into promptly accessible electrical energy. Such technology is thus finding increasing applications given the focus on alternative sources of energy. However, the synthesis of TE materials relies on costly and scarce elements, which are also environmentally damaging to extract. Moreover, spent TE modules lead to a waste of resources and cause severe pollution. To address these issues, many laboratory studies have explored the synthesis of TE materials using wastes and the recovery of scarce elements from spent modules, e.g., utilization of Si slurry as starting materials, development of biodegradable TE papers, and bacterial recovery and recycling of tellurium from spent TE modules. Yet, the outcomes of such work have no...

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Resource recovery from urban stock, the example of cadmium and tellurium from thin film module recycling

Cited by 18 publications

References 14 publications

Photovoltaic solar panels of crystalline silicon: Characterization and separation

Photovoltaic solar panels of crystalline silicon: Characterization and separation

A life cycle assessment of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Waste Recycling in Thermoelectric Materials

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