Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St., Toledo, USA.
Sustainability and Renewable Energy Systems Program, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, 1 University Plz, Platteville, WI, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Sep 15;735:138827. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138827. Epub 2020 May 11.
There has been a substantial growth in the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in the past couple decades. Solar PVs have a life span of about 25 years and much of the deployed PVs will soon reach their end of life (EoL). It is now timely to plan for the EoL of PVs to recover valuable materials and recycle PV modules sustainably. The goal of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of different recycling methods for crystalline silicon (c-Si) and CdTe panels. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed for delamination and material separation phases of recycling solar panels. The LCA results showed that the recycling of c-Si and CdTe PVs contribute 13-25% and 3-4%, respectively to the entire PV lifecycle impacts. Also, for both c-Si and CdTe PVs, the thermal-based recycling methods resulted in lower environmental impacts than chemical and mechanical methods, except for pyrolysis. Nitric acid dissolution used for c-Si PV recycling had the highest impacts among all methods since the material consumption for this method has not been optimized for industrial use. Results from this study suggested that current techniques used in recycling of PVs, produce higher impacts than extraction of Al, Si and glass for c-Si and extraction of glass for CdTe. Lastly, this study identified which materials to prioritize for highest economic and environmentals benefits from recycling. These will be Ag, Al, Si, and glass in c-Si modules, and Te, Cu, and glass in CdTe modules.
在过去的几十年里，太阳能光伏 (PV) 电池板的部署有了实质性的增长。太阳能光伏电池板的寿命约为 25 年，并且已经部署的大部分光伏电池板将很快达到使用寿命终点 (EoL)。现在是时候为光伏电池板的 EoL 规划做准备，以回收有价值的材料，并可持续地回收光伏模块。本研究的目的是分析不同晶体硅 (c-Si) 和碲化镉 (CdTe) 光伏板回收方法的环境影响。对回收太阳能电池板的分层和材料分离阶段进行了生命周期评估 (LCA)。LCA 结果表明，c-Si 和 CdTe PV 的回收分别对整个 PV 生命周期影响贡献了 13-25%和 3-4%。此外，对于 c-Si 和 CdTe PV，基于热的回收方法比化学和机械方法产生的环境影响更小，除了热解。用于回收 c-Si PV 的硝酸溶解方法的影响最大，因为该方法的材料消耗尚未针对工业用途进行优化。本研究的结果表明，与 c-Si 提取铝、硅和玻璃以及 CdTe 提取玻璃相比，当前用于回收光伏的技术产生的影响更高。最后，本研究确定了从回收中获得最高经济和环境效益的优先材料。这些将是 c-Si 模块中的 Ag、Al、Si 和玻璃，以及 CdTe 模块中的 Te、Cu 和玻璃。
