The technological development of the PHOTORAMA project is focused on the implementation of a Pilot Line in industrial environment to recycle photovoltaic (PV) panels. The development of the Pilot Line includes three steps per waste stream (crystalline-Silicon (c-Si) and Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium (CIGS)):
- STEP1 : Disassembling of the external components (aluminium frame, junction box),
- STEP2 : Delamination of the multi-layers sandwich frontsheet//cells//backsheet,
- STEP3 : Metal recovery (silver, silicon, indium and gallium).
Six technologies related to the three steps are under development and scale-up.
The disassembling technology has been developed to remove the external components (frame, junction box) with a mechanical process using hydraulic cylinders. Those components are strongly sealed to the PV multi-layers to resist to severe weather conditions. A thorough sequential process including two main steps has been set up to meet the challenge for not breaking the glass front sheet, treating all kind of panels (configuration, size etc.) and managing a high throughput. From TRL5, the process has been optimized and the equipment as Pilot Unit has been built (TRL7) and run in industrial environement.
The diamond wire cutting as one of the STEP2 technology manage today to cut through the very thin inter-layer of the PV sandwich (c-Si) in between 200 to 400 µm. From TRL5, the development and scale-up has demonstrated the process potential with advanced cutting speed (40-60 mm/min), local accurate sectioning (few hundred µm) and clean layer samples. The Pilot Unit has been built and transferred for DEM in industrial environment (TRL7).
The Water Jet technology is an innovative efficient technology for PV multi-layer delamination to provide clean materials separation for c-Si stream (STEP2). From TRL 5, the Pilot Unit has been built to run the pilot scale DEMO in industrial environment (TRL7) .
The Flash light optical separation is a technology applicable on one type of PV panels (so-called thin films) for STEP2. The trials and related results showed with the Pilot Unit assembled a very efficient process that is expected to treat 30 units/h. The prototype Unit has been installed in industrial environment for DEMO (TRL7).
Two technologies have been developed for metal recovery as STEP3 of the Pilot Line. Leaching using Deep Eutectic Solvent and dissolution in Organic Sulfonic Acid , both followed by electrodeposition for recovery under metallic form of silver, silicon, indium and gallium. The technologies have been optimized to recover high purity metals by demonstrating extraction using green and organic solvent recyclable in the process loop and/or fully biodegradable. The Pilot Unit has been installed in industrial environment to run the DEMO (TRL7) .
The techno-economic, environmental has developed the database that have been continuously updated with the technological progress. The tasks regarding social analysis have been completed with a successful survey that have reached more than 16 000 stakeholders and provided more than 200 answers. The co-creation workshops, macro-regional workshop and school visits have been held during project timeframe and gathered very insightful results to better understand the barriers and drivers of PV recycling.
The communication and dissemination activities have been developed with the web-site, social medias, flyer, several invited talks in international workshops, presentations in international conferences etc. These allowed for raising awareness of the project to share the main results and success towards the objectives. Key Exploitable Results have been identified and detailed for developing and expending the exploitation activities. Products and processes associated to the Pilot Line are mainly targeted for the most impactful exploitation of the project results.
