title: Physical and chemical treatment of end of life panels: An integrated automatic approach viable for different photovoltaic technologies.
abstract: Different kinds of panels (Si-based panels and CdTe panels) were treated according to a common process route made up of two main steps: a physical treatment (triple crushing and thermal treatment) and a chemical treatment. After triple crushing three fractions were obtained: an intermediate fraction (0.4-1mm) of directly recoverable glass (17%w/w); a coarse fraction (>1mm) requiring further thermal treatment in order to separate EVA-glued layers in glass fragments; a fine fraction (<0.4mm) requiring chemical treatment to dissolve metals and obtain another recoverable glass fraction. Coarse fractions (62%w/w) were treated thermally giving another recoverable glass fraction (52%w/w). Fine fractions can be further sieved into two sub-fractions: <0.08mm (3%w/w) and 0.08-0.4mm (22%w/w). Chemical characterization showed that 0.08-0.4mm fractions mainly contained Fe, Al and Zn, while precious and dangerous metals (Ag, Ti, Te, Cu and Cd) are mainly present in fractions <0.08mm. Acid leaching of 0.08-0.4mm fractions allowed to obtain a third recoverable glass fraction (22%w/w). The process route allowed to treat by the same scheme of operation both Si based panels and Cd-Te panels with an overall recycling rate of 91%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: francesca.pagnanelli@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pagnanelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moscardini
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy; Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Granata
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abo Atia
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Altimari
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Metallurgy, Institute of Recycling Technologies, Letna 9, 042 00 Kosice, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Havlik
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Toro
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum / Q000737:chemistry; D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D005591:Chemical Fractionation; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods*; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry; D013691:Tellurium / Q000737:chemistry*; D015032:Zinc / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D012834:Silver; D003300:Copper; D000535:Aluminum; D007501:Iron; D015032:Zinc; D013691:Tellurium; C028337:cadmium telluride; D012825:Silicon
keywords: Chemical treatment; Glass recovery; Photovoltaic panels; Physical treatment; Recycling