Highly efficient delamination technologies to recover and reuse metals, glass, polymers from end-of-life photovoltaic panels

Project Information

EVERPV

Grant agreement ID: 101122208

DOI

10.3030/101122208

EC signature date 21 August 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 5 367 184,00

Coordinated by

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EVERPV (Highly efficient delamination technologies to recover and reuse metals, glass, polymers from end-of-life photovoltaic panels)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Production of renewable energy sources has considerably increased during the last two decades, especially through photovoltaic panels. With an average lifetime of a solar panel estimated at 25 years, those panels are now very close to their end of life. This represents and unprecedent waste volume to address. It is estimated that PV wastes will represent between 4% and 14% of the total electricity generation capacity installed by 2030 and 60 to 80 million tons by 2050. This huge mass represents an incredible opportunity to supply secondary materials to the EU PV industry and beyond in the next future. We estimate that the cumulative worldwide PV panel waste will represent between 2 and 8 million tons by 2030, amounting to about a 450 million USD value and enough raw material to produce 60 million new panels and by 2050.
Under the current EU directive concerning Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipement (WEEE), 80% of the total mass of the used solar panels should be recycled. Glass is strategic to address as it represents 70% of the current mass of PV panels. EVERPV project focuses on the silicon solar cells technology since it represents more than 80% of the market. These panels contain glass, copper, silicon, encapsulant polymers and backsheet polymers (PET/PVF/PVDF). The project will address both Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) and
PolyOlefin Encapsulant (POE) as encapsulants to cover already implemented technologies as well as the emerging ones. Indeed, the majority of installed solar panels contains EVA as the encapsulant of solar modules, recovery path for this material is then strategic. In addition, one of the heaviest fractions that is not recycled in PV modules are the crosslinked encapsulant materials (EVA and POE) and the fluorinated bakcsheet polymers because of the low maturity of the involved processes. Developing a specific recycling path is key for the re-use of these polymers. To ensure that the process developed during the project will suit future PV waste, EVERPV will explore, demonstrate, and optimize several recovering and re-use routes for polymer materials. Finally, according to IRENA’s forecast in 2030, used PV modules would represent a total of 1080 tons of Ag. With a constant increase of the market value of precious metals, the PV recycling industry could achieve considerable economic benefits in the next future. EVERPV project will address the separation of silver from other metals (Cu, Si). High purity silver ingots is desired for new products. Silicon also represents a strategic material to recover due to the high purity required from solar grade silicon (4N, 99,9999% purity).
The project will cluster with other EU-funded consortia addressing the recycling of silicon (e.g. PHOTORAMA) to provide a global solution. The technology demonstrated during EVERPV project targets to process more than 3000 tons of solar panels per year, thus recovering enough raw materials to produce more than 350 000 new panels per year by 2030. EVERPV will finally demonstrate the potential for reusability of recovered materials in several industrial value chains in particular in the PV industry.
EVERPV has gathered a consortium of 16 participants from 8 countries whose expertise ranges from solar PV materials and recycling processes developped in R&D centers (CEA, CSEM, ENEA, TEC), recycler industrials (ENVIE, 9TECH), process industries and materials suppliers (SGB, DTF, DPL), PV modules manufacturing (SOLI), collecting and waste treatment organizations (SOREN, ERION), policy-making, business and training facilitators (SPE, UNITAR, BI).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

PV cells are a complex structure presenting precious metals and elements, as silver for example. Based on the grinding of PV panels waste from the backside and/or the use of a tear-off system assited by IR lamp heating, EVERPV will demonstrate two innovative technologies to delaminate the different layers of the PV panel. Combined with recycling processes, the project will enable to recover the glass sheet with less than 1% impurities, encapsulant and backsheet polymers with a purity over 99%, and silver with a purity of 99%.
The project will demonstrate two main delamination technologies to obtain preserved components and high purity materials. The first step is the delamination of the modules by removing polymers and cells from the glass sheet. This targets the PV structure used 20-30 years ago. One technology is based on sanding to remove the different layers of a PV module from the glass (CEA). The second technology is IR heating process to remove the layers (ENEA). We will benchmark these technologies with others industrial processes for module delamination (as heated blade). Pilot-lines will be installed in the industrial site of two partners ENVIE and 9-TECH. Comparison with other industrial processes will be investigated and complementarity will be considered for all techniques.
The determination of the specifications regarding the purity allowing the reuse of the recovered materials in the targeted applications will be investigated. The cleaning and characterization of the recovered glass will be developped until 99%. PET polymer is a second wotkhorse for the project. The processing of the PET including its depolymerization and purification should be raised to 95% with laboratory development of various processes based on specific chemistry. From the state-of-the-art materials and processes, we will derive specification and check if our processes hit these targets with reasonable costs. The EVERPV project also considers the internal layers with encapsulant (usually EVA in old PV modules), silicon solar cells and metallisation. The main material of interest is silver present in the matallisation on the silicon cell. We will first study processes to separate polymers and metals. Then we will propose and validate methods to extract and purify silver and also encapsulant polymers. Polymers for solar modules (backsheet, encapsulants) are one of the most technically challenging applications, especially for PET. In the EVERPV project, we will demonstrate a closed loop model where recovered polymers from end-of-life modules can be recycled, purified and reconverted . The demonstration of the feasibility of partial incorporation of recycled materials in PV module components will follow a 3-stage qualification protocol for direct re-use of glass plate, encapsulants, backsheet and silver. Coupon scale material will be elaborated and tested (IEC62788). Mini-module scale performance and reliability testing in damp heat (DH) and thermal cycling (TCT) conditions following IEC61215 requirements. Finally, we will look for a demonstration in industrial scale PV module fabrication the impact of materials with high recycled content with high performance and reliability.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The delamination techniques will allow a better selectivity of the recycled materials and the preservation of glass.

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