EU-Life Environment
Demonstration Project:
Partners
_____________________________
First Solar GmbH
Wilhelm-Wolff-Str. 27
D-99099 Erfurt
phone: +49 361 663399-63
fax: +49 361 663399-65
www.firstsolar.com
Deutsche Solar AG
Berthelsdorfer Str. 111 A
D-09599 Freiberg
phone: +49 3731 7982-0
fax: +49 3731 7982-10
www.deutschesolar.de
Utrecht University
Padualaan 14
NL-3584 CH Utrecht
phone: +31 30 2537-618
fax: +31 30 2537-601
www.chem.uu.nl/nws
University of Miskolc
Egyetemvaros
H-3515 Miskolc
phone: +36 46 565111-1020
fax: +36 46 563465
www.uni-misckolc.hu
(LIFE04 ENV/D/000047)
RESOLVED – Recovery of Solar
Valuable Materials, Enrichment
and Decontamination Recovery of Solar
Internet:
http://www.resolved.bam.de
Valuable Materials
-
Coordination by
Enrichment and
Federal Institute for Materials Research and
Testing
Decontamination
Division IV.3 / Division I.4
Unter den Eichen 87
D-12205 Berlin
phone: + 49 (0) 30 - 81 04 14 33
fax: + 49 (0) 30 - 81 04 14 37
internet: http://www.bam.de
E-Mail: Christian.Adam@bam.de
Federal Institute for Materials
Research and Testing
The Federal Institute for Materials
Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für
Materialforschung und -prüfung, BAM)
has its responsibility in the interacting
fields of Materials – Chemistry –
Environment – Safety.
BAM is engaged in the interdependent
and complementary activities:
research and development EU-LIFE Environment
testing, analysis, approvals Demonstration Project
consultation and information.
(LIFE04 ENV/D/000047)
RESOLVED- Recovery of Solar Valuable
Materials, Enrichment and Decontamination
Project background
Renewable Energy technologies such as
photovoltaics (PV) have gained a reputation for
being sustainable and environmental compatible
and so protect the environment from risk and
damaging impacts. When renewable energy
technologies such as photovoltaic systems are
compared to fossil fuels there is an even greater
expectation, especially among critics, for them to
use state-of-the-art technologies to achieve
environmental compatibility. It is therefore
necessary to investigate how further progress
can be made in achieving environmental
compatibility in
manufacture,
operation and
end-of-life-cycle.
With PV systems becoming more numerous,
end-of-life management will become increasingly
important. To keep their good reputation,
advances need to be made in recycling thin-film
cell types made of CdTe and CIS. CdTe and CIS
panels are destined to make a big impression in
the future, but when they reach their end-of-life,
hazardous substances such as cadmium used in
the CdTe panels, may harm the environment if
they are not recycled or disposed of properly.
Furthermore, limited elements such as tellurium
and indium are needed for CdTe and CIS so the
development of an effective recycling technology
will help to save scarce resources.
Project objectives
Recovery of semiconductors as a raw material
and decontaminating the reminder (holistic
recycling in an environmentally friendly way) are
the main objectives of the RESOLVED project.
These goals will be achieved by optimising and
demonstrating existing technologies (i) to recover
the semiconductors from modules and (ii) to
concentrate and re-use them in the manufacture of
new thin-film modules. Special efforts will be made
to look into life cycle analysis, process
sustainability, economy, resource availability and
socio-economic effects on their reputation.
Project overview
The EU-project RESOLVED aims to demonstrate
a sustainable recycling strategy for photovoltaic
thin-film modules such as CdTe- and CIS. The
following process steps are part of the recycling
and will be investigated and optimised within
RESOLVED.
1. When the lifetime of a thin-film module is
finished (after 25-35 years of power generation), it
will be treated within the suggested recycling
process. The first step is mechanical or thermal
dismantling of the module to separate the
cell/substrate from the glass protection layers,
EPA plastics and other materials. The glass can
be further treated using normal glass-recycling
processes. The target product – the semi-
conductor material – which is fixed as a thin film
on the carrier glass, will be removed in the next
step.
2. The valuable semiconductor layer is separated
from the carrier glass by a mechanical process
(e.g., sandblasting or wet mechanical treatment).
Different technologies causing shear stress on the
surface will be tested and compared economically
and technologically. After mechanical treatment
the semiconductor is part of a mixture of glass
fines. Depending on the type of process applied,
quality and amount of the resulting glass fines will
significantly influence the following wet mechanical
separation step.
3. The mixture of semiconductor and glass fines
will be separated using wet mechanical
methods like sieves, hydrocyclones and
upstream classifiers. Favourable methods will
be selected and optimised and the separation
process will be demonstrated on a technical
scale. This process will concentrate the
separated semiconductor material but it will still
contain impurities such as ultrafine glass
particles. Further increase in purity will be
achieved by flotation - another wet process. In
order to optimise flotation, the process
parameters will be modified and different agents
will be tested.
4. The concentrated and purified semiconductor
material will be used for the production of new
thin-film photovoltaic modules. The material flow
cycle is therefore closed and contributes to a
sustainable recovery of a scarce resource.
Within the frame of the RESOLVED project 10-
20 test modules will be produced and tested.
Online process control by non-destructive large
scale analysis
Instrumental photon activation analysis (PAA)
as well as tube-excited energy-dispersive X-ray
fluorescence spectroscopy (EDXRS) will be
applied for non-destructive large-scale
characterisation of input waste materials and
other fractions. Methods will be tested and
optimised in order to assess high mass flow
rates of electronic equipment waste
(photovoltaic modules, CdTe, CIS and others). It
is expected that by applying these methods, the
investigated materials can be characterised
sufficiently, representatively and continuously.