L R AS Published on Monday 21 February 2022 - n° 394 - Categories:recycling
An industrial solution to recover silicon, silver, copper...
The French company Rosi Solar has developed an industrial solution that would be capable of recovering the silicon, silver, copper, etc. contained in end-of-life PV panels. The company's technology is based on pyrolysis. This process isolates the different metals in the cells and produces high-purity metals.
Pyrolysis is generally used for the thermal decomposition of organic material in the absence of oxygen. The process is known to offer excellent throughput and cycle stability. It is used in the chemical industry to produce ethylene, carbon and chemicals from oil, coal and even wood, in addition to producing coke from coal.
"Silver is less than 0.1% of the components of a solar module, but it is a large part of its value. Pyrolysis, an innovative process, separates the metals and cells in a way that maintains the purity of the material. The company has used the results of its own research to purify the silicon, which is recovered from the waste from cutting the wafers.
Rosi Solar's customers are all potential users of these materials, especially in the chemical industry.
The company is moving to industrial deployment of its low environmental impact recycling solution. Together with national players and often within European initiatives, it aims to promote its technologies for purifying silicon and silver from used photovoltaic cells in order to create a market around the recovery of high-purity materials in the solar industry. At its new plant in La Mure, Isère, the company will process glass-free laminates to extract silicon and metals. "This is our first major commercial contract.
The company believes: "We are at the beginning of a tsunami as far as the PV panel recycling market is concerned"
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/02/15/new-pv-module-recycling-tech-from-france/
PV Magazine 15 February 2022
