Catalytic recovery of metals from end-of-life polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic cells: Experimental insights into silver recovery.

Autor: Yashas SR; Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel., Ruck EB; Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel., Demissie H; Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel., Manor-Korin N; Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel., Gendel Y; Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel. Electronic address: ygendel@tx.technion.ac.il.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Waste management (New York, N.Y.) [Waste Manag] 2023 Sep 01; Vol. 171, pp. 184-194. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Sep 01.
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2023.08.038
Abstrakt: A steady increase in end-of-life (EoL) polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic (c-Si PV) panels is necessitating the development of recycling technologies to guarantee sustainable environmental management and a circular economy. Herein, we propose a comprehensive EoL c-Si PV recycling strategy with an emphasis on selective silver (Ag) recovery. Primarily, a combination of physical and thermal treatment led to the isolation of PV cell fraction from the EoL PV module. Thereafter, a less-toxic, sulphuric acid-hydrogen peroxide (1 M H 2 SO 4 - H 2 O 2 1% (v/v %)) lixiviant was used for Ag leaching at 70 °C. A novel catalytic process using platinum-embedded activated carbon (Pt/AC) was used with only hydrogen gas and air to recover selectively and concentrate the Ag + from the synthetic PV cells leachate. Finally, pure metallic silver (Ag > 99.0 %) was obtained by the conventional electrowinning process. This study also proposes an explicit recovery process for Al, Cu, and Si. In addition, the Pt/AC catalytic process could efficiently recover Cu from the PV cells, similar to Ag. Following the complete recovery of Ag and Cu through Pt/AC, there is sufficient scope to isolate other metals like Al and Pb leaving behind crude Si wafers. Hence, the as-proposed recycling and metal recovery process is a newer approach benefiting industrial implementation.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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