1

PV Life Cycle Management and Recycling – Overview & Prospects

Vasilis Fthenakis

Center for Life Cycle Analysis, Columbia University

and

Photovoltaics Environmental Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory

2

The Economic Feasibility and Value of PV Recycling Sustainable PV Growth and the Value of Recycling

Technical and Economic Feasibility of Recycling

Projections

Pathways for Increasing Value and Minimizing Cost

3

Recycling –Addressing Concerns

Market Customer Environmental Concerns

Recycling

4

Photovoltaics are required to meet the need for abundant

electricity generation at competitive costs, whilst conserving

resources for future generations, and having environmental

impacts lower than those of alternative future energy-

options

Sustainability Metrics:

Cost

Resource Availability

Environmental Impact

Large Scale PV –Sustainability Criteria

5

Large Scale PV –Sustainability Criteria

Low Cost

Resource Availability

Lowest Environmental Impact

Affordability in a

competitive world

Te in CdTe

In in CIGS

Ge in a-SiGe & III/V

Ag in c-Si

Lower than alternatives Life Cycle Impacts & Risks

Zweibel, Mason & Fthenakis, A Solar Grand Plan, Scientific American, 2008

Fthenakis, Mason & Zweibel, The technical, geographical and economic feasibility for solar energy in the US, Energy Policy, 2009

Fthenakis, The sustainability of thin-film PV, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009

Fthenakis, Sustainability metrics for extending thin-film PV to terawatt levels. MRS Bulletin, 2012

6

Large Scale PV –The Value of Recycling

Low Cost

Resource Availability

Lowest Environmental Impact

Affordability in a

competitive world

Te in CdTe

In in CIGS

Ge in a-SiGe & III/V

Ag in c-Si

Lower than alternatives Life Cycle Impacts & Risks

Zweibel, Mason & Fthenakis, A Solar Grand Plan, Scientific American, 2008

Fthenakis, Mason & Zweibel, The technical, geographical and economic feasibility for solar energy in the US, Energy Policy, 2009

Fthenakis, The sustainability of thin-film PV, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2009

Fthenakis, Sustainability metrics for extending thin-film PV to terawatt levels. MRS Bulletin, 2012

Recycling

7

CdTe PV Production Constraints (based on material availability: primary+recycling)

Annual Growth (GW/yr)

Fthenakis V., MRS Bulletin, 37, 425, 2012

0

50

100

150

200

2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100

Optimistic

Most likely

Conservative

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 2060 2070 2080 2090 2100

Te

(M

T/y

r)

Tellurium Availability for PV (MT/yr)

Low

High

Recycling every 30-yrs

10% loss in collection

10% loss in recycling

Fthenakis V., Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 13, 2746, 2009

Photovoltaic Modules

• Three common

PV module types:

8

Recoverable Materials

9

Value of Materials in PV Products

Material Price ($/kg) Products Indium 700 CIGS

Gallium 650 CIGS Silver 600* c-Si

Tellurium 100 CdTe Silicon 12** c-Si

Cadmium 4*** CdTe Germanium 1200 III/V, a-Si

Glass 0.07+ All

Aluminum $1.6/kg * Silver has been as high as $1600/kg in the last decade CIGS also contains valuable molybdenum and selenium ** UMG grade: $12; 6N-8N: $20; Recovered Si wafers: $25-40/kg ***Cadmium has low intrinsic value, but there is value in avoiding hazardous waste disposal costs + Glass cullet prices range from $3 to $75/tonne depending on purity

10

Crystalline silicon PV recycling methods

10

Frisson 2000

11

Crystalline silicon PV recycling methods

11

Wambach 2005

12

Crystalline silicon & thin-film recycling methods - Solvation

Kang 2012

Kim 2012

Palitzsch 2014

13

Environmental Evaluation of c-Si PV recycling

13

Wambach et al., 3rd Int PV Recycling Conf., Rome, 2013

14

Thin Film PV Recycling - CdTe

Goozner et al / 5,997,718 / Dec 7, 1999

15

Filtration

Facility

PV Module Waste

Column I

Cu

Column II

Cu

Column I

Cd, Fe

Column II

Cd, Fe

Leach

Device

Clean Glass

Leachate Solution

(Te, Cd, Cu, Fe)

Elution Solution

(Cu) CdSO4

Cd

Electrowinning

Cell

Copper Recovery (?)

Removal of Cu from Liquid

Using Resin M4195

Sp

en

t H

2S

O4

So

luti

on

Glass Slurry

H2S

O4

H2O2

Cadmium Metal

Recycling of Spent Electrolyte

Effluent Solution

(Te)

Sulfide Precipitation

Removal of Cd and Fe from Liquid

Using Resin Amberlyst 15

Elution of Column

M4195

Elution of Column

Amberlyst 15

Tellurium Sulfides

Fthenakis V. and Wang W., Separating Te from Cd Waste Patent No 7,731,920, June 8, 2010

Wang W. and Fthenakis V.M. Kinetics Study on Separation of Cadmium from Tellurium in Acidic Solution Media Using Cation Exchange Resin, Journal of Hazardous Materials, B125, 80-88, 2005

Fthenakis V.M and Wang W., Extraction and Separation of Cd and Te from Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaic Manufacturing Scrap, Progress in Photovoltaics, 14:363-371, 2006.

Thin-film Recycling R&D at BNL: CdTe PV Modules

16

Pure Material Recovery Challenges & Perspectives

Sulfuric acid leaching method yields a solution containing several impurities, e.g. Cu, Fe, Al, Na, Ca, Si, Mg, and other. Fe and Al are particularly troublesome.

Production of high purity cadmium and tellurium products are compromised with the presence of so many contaminants

The Glass-EVA separation is not complete precluding its reuse in flat glass manufacturing

Current end-use of recycled glass: Beads, fiberglass at only $3-$30 /tonne

Use as clean cullet in flat soda-lime glass would bring $50-$75 /tonne

Flat Glass – Soda lime glass

– Made via Float Process

– Markets include:

• Architectural

• Photovoltaics

• Display

• Automotive

17

Projections of Glass Needs in PV

18

0

10

20

30

40

50

20

09

20

10

20

11

20

12

20

13

20

14

20

15

20

16

20

17

20

18

20

19

20

20

20

21

20

22

20

23

20

24

20

25

20

26

20

27

20

28

20

29

20

30

Gla

ss (

bill

ion

sq

uar

e m

ete

rs)

YearCurrent Flat Glass Capacity (billion sq m)

Aggressive Annual Glass Consumption for PV (billion sq m)

Most Likely Annual Glass Consumption for PV (billion sq m)

Conservation Annual Glass Consumption for PV (billion sq m)

50% growth in PV per year 40%

30%

Burrows and Fthenakis, Solar Materials and Solar Cells, in press

Projections of PV Waste in Europe*

19

*EC DG ENV Report, Bio Intelligence Service, 2011

MW

Architectural Glass Recycling

20

Glass (cullet) is already

regularly recycled from

internal and post industrial

sources

Pure cullet can be recycled into new float glass.

Contaminated cullet can be “downcycled” into fiberglass

Low concentration cullet (i.e. demolition waste) can be “downcycled” into aggregate.

Glass and PV: Scale of Systems

• LowE Glass– Float Plant

• Produces 300-1000 tons of

glass per day

– Uses 60-200 tons of recycled

cullet

• PV Manufacturing Plant

• 100 MW – 1 GW per year

• 2000 - 20,000 m2 panels per day

• Uses 30-300 tons glass per day

• PV Field

• Roughly same size as 1 year of plant

production 21

22

• Glass-polymer separations (to enhance glass value)

• Prevent Glass contamination with metal

• CIGS recycling

• Design for the environment and reliability/longevity

• Assess recyclability of new PV types

• PV Recycling System (Collection+Recycling) Cost modeling

Remaining R&D Needs

23

Model for CdTe PV Recycling Cost-Value Analysis *

Process flow of CdTe PV Recycling

*Jun-Ki Choi and Vasilis Fthenakis, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2010

Decision tree for various scenarios

24

Major PV Sustainability metrics include cost, resource availability, and

environmental impacts

These three aspects are closely related; recycling spent modules will

become increasingly important in resolving cost, resource, and

environmental constraints to large scales of sustainable growth

The technical and economic feasibility of recycling currently commercial PV

modules is demonstrated

Opportunities exist in reducing recycling costs by improving the purity of

recovered materials and optimizing system costs

email: vmf5@columbia.edu

www.clca.columbia.edu

www.pv.bnl.gov

Conclusion