Photovoltaic panel heating and silicon extraction method diagram

What is the recycling process for silicon-based PV panels?

In this review article, the complete recycling process is systematically summarized into two main sections: disassembly and delamination treatment for silicon-based PV panels, involving physical, thermal, and chemical treatment, and the retrieval of valuable metals (silicon, silver, copper, tin, etc.).

Will PV waste panels reduce the need for raw silicon extraction?

On the other hand, silicon is included in the 2020 EU list of critical raw materials (Raw Materials Information System (europa.eu)); thus, the recovered silicon from PV waste panels would decrease the need for raw silicon extraction and improve the circularity of the European economy.

How are non-silicon PV panels treated?

The non-silicon PV panels are treated by on chemical process to separate the different PV module components and 95 % of materials were claimed to be able to be recovered for use in new materials (PV CYCLE, 2013).

How to determine the degree of separation of PV panels?

In order to evaluate the degree of separation of PV panels, the separation rate of PV panels was introduced in this paper and it was determined by Eq. (1): (1) Separation rate ( %) = ( 1 − M b M a) × 100 where Mb is the mass of unseparated PV panels and Ma is the total mass of the PV panels placed in the reactor.

How to extract silver from photovoltaic panels?

Pyrolysis and gravimetric separation methods are the most effective, which recovered 91.42 %and 94.25 % silver from crystalline panels and 96.10% silver from CIS PV panels. Yang et al. (2017) used methane sulphonic acid (MSA) with an oxidation agent (hydrogen peroxide) to extract silver from photovoltaic panels.

How are silicon PV modules recycled?

Recycling of silicon PV modules essentially involves three main stages : (i) manual/mechanical disassembly of decommissioned PV panels which yields the aluminum frame, junction boxes and copper cables; (ii) delamination via mechanical, chemical or thermal [3, 13] treatment for glass recovery and (iii) leaching/etching for metal extraction.