Recovering resources from the end-of-life PV modules

Abstract

The market of the PV (Photo-voltaic) industries has continuously increased due to its application in clean energy generation. Normally the life time of the PV modules is 20-25 years, hence more wastes will be generated in coming decades, so we need an optimal way to handle this End-of-Life PV modules. To recycle the end-of-life PV module, the parts of the module (glass, back-sheet, silicon solar cell, electrodes) should be separated by proper thermal or chemical methods. Here we have carried out thermal pyrolysis process for part separation by which the silicon solar cell would be separated from the module. We have carried out chemical etching process to get the refined silicon wafers from the recovered silicon solar cells which can be used to make new silicon solar cells. The main resources such as Silicon wafer, glass and Ag have been recovered from the end-of-life PV module.