IMPLEMENTATION OF A CIRCULAR ECONOMY BASED ON...

CABRISSIMPLEMENTATION OF A CIRCULAR ECONOMY BASED ON RECYCLED, REUSED

AND RECOVERED INDIUM, SILICON AND SILVER MATERIALS FOR

PHOTOVOLTAIC AND OTHER APPLICATIONS

Speaker: Terje Halvorsen, RESITEC AS

D.Pelletier, A.Ulyashin, H.S.Radhakrishnan, W.Palitzsch, J.Dieguez, J.Denafas, M.Vardavoulias, E.Neubauer, T.Halvorsen, N.Adamovic, S.Ghodbane, T.Kaden, M.C.Hoffmann, N.Defrenne, R.Roozeman, N.Matsapey, M.Syvertsen

Coordinator: CEA

Eco-Solar workshop “How to create value from PV waste” – Munich, April 10th 2018

HORIZON2020HORIZON2020

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Challenge and opportunity of PV waste


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End-of-life panel waste volumes

• The modeling shows that the peak of European end of life waste will occur in 2042 ( ~ independent of the slope factor)

• The slope factor changes substantially the onset of panel waste

• For example, the date estimated for 100 000 tonnes of annual waste changes by 5 years according to common slope factors

𝑃 𝑡 = 1 − exp−( 𝑡 − 𝑇𝑜 /𝑇𝑙)𝛼)

α = 5

α = 10

Weibull failure distribution for panels installed in 2000 with 30 year lifetime

α = 5.4

α = 10

5 years

Yearly waste volumes in Europe for two slope factors (tonnes) – CABRISS model


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CABRISS project

The main vision of CABRISS is to develop a circular economy mainly for thephotovoltaic industry, but also for electronic, metallurgy and glass industries.

Mass balance of typical PV panel


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CABRISS project

CABRISS offers solutions on three levels:

• CABRISS ensures economically viable high-value recovery of secondary materials from complex PV wastes (end-of-life & broken modules /cells) and silicon kerf (diamond wire & block cutting)

• CABRISS develops innovative approaches for cost-efficient reuse of the recovered materials in high-quality products (Si powders; conductive inks and pastes; sputtering and ITO targets; wafers and low-cost wafer equivalents).

• CABRISS enables a sustainable, resource- and cost-efficient manufacturing of PV cells & modules from recovered materials.


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CABRISS project

• 11 Companies

• 5 Research institutes

• 9 EU countries

• 2 Value chains

The actors in CABRISS cover the full value chain starting from waste collection and resulting in a closed loop reuse of secondary materials for PV production.


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CABRISS - Si waste generated by PV industry


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A time-varying panel composition and value

• WEEE regulations concerning minimum applicable recovery targets for solar panels (80%) are covered only by the recovery of glass and aluminium

• But more than 75% of the residual potential value of a panel comes from other materials (silicon, silver, copper)

Silicon panel composition by weight and bill of recycled materials (BORM)

Panel

component

Weight /

kg

% by

weight

€ per

kg

€ % value

Glass 14.7 72.6% 0.05 0.74 5,8%

Aluminium 2.5 12.3% 1 2.5 20%

Silicon 0.61 3.0% 10 6.1 48%

Silver 0.0066 0.03% 500 3.3 26,2%

Other 2.44 12.2% - - -

Total 20.3 100% 12.6 100%

Silver is already a major recycled metal from WEEE wastes and has strong potential from panel recycling

The value of extracted, purified material is a strong function of early dismantling procedures and separation steps

Recycled early (older) panels have much more value potential !

Evolution of the bill of recycled materials

Source: CEA

HORIZON2020

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CABRISS expected impact

Economic/Social

1,210,000 tons of end-of life PV waste can be collected by 2036 in Europe

Total addressable market of :

- Cumulative value to 2045 market of the order to 2.5 billion € for recycled Si (<10$/kg)

- Recycling revenues (Si, Ag, In) in excess of 500 M€ per annum should be possible.

Environmental

- Important Gains expected on “Green” recycling technology

- The following metrics will be used in CABRISS project (estimation under progress)

1. The average emission of greenhouse gases per 1kWh of electricity produced(gCO2eq/kW) and in total (tCO2eq).

2. The primary energy required to produce 1Wp of solar panel (GJ/Wp).

3. The energy pay-back time (EBPT) in years.


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CABRISS – Overview on working pathways


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CABRISS – Recovery

• Complex waste (PV panels) with a rather low density of valuable materials

• PV waste recycling technologies not cost-efficient.

• Treatment of end-of-life (EoL) and broken modules is mostly done by removing the Al frame, junction box and copper cables, and shredding the glass with attached organic encapsulants/silicon cells and absorber layers.

LOSER Chemie ECOLUX glass recovery pilot line

• New technologies and equipment for automatized opening and delamination of PV EoL modules, able to recover undamaged glass

• Outputs: Glass, Al, Cu, de-metallized Si shards, Ag, In concentrates, PAC (Poly Aluminum Chloride)

• High-value, „Zero waste“ and High-yield recycling

Primary recovery and recycling of secondary materials from complex PV waste

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CABRISS – Materials recovery

• Waste collection: EOL panels, production wastes

• Innovative delamination processes for full opening of modules without shredding steps. TRL increase for thin film

New technology based on water for Si based modules

Allow better recovery of materials with very limited lost of economical value (e.g. high-quality glass from EOL modules)

• Hydrothermal treatments Recovery of indium and silver as compounds which can be addressed to

recycling market

Recovery of de-metallized silicon

Broken wafer-to-cell

production wastes

de-metallization


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CABRISS Recovery

• More than 50% of the input poly-Si feedstock are lost during PV production.

• Deposition of these wastes in landfill has a negative environmental impact and high energy invested in the production of virgin Si is lost.

• Up to now, cost efficient and safe recycling methods for Si-kerf do not exist.

Fine & agglomerated Si powders from Si-kerf

• Novel technology developed by RESITEC to recycle and manufacture low-cost silicon metal powders from waste and deposited materials, leading to metallurgical grade Si.

• Industrial high yield process

• Si powders with a significantly reduced carbon footprint

• Recycling process without melting steps (2N-3N)

Recovery of silicon powders from Si-kerf

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CABRISS Recycling

• Si recovered from primary recycling of Si-kerf has a rather low quality.

• Currently, the cost for purification of silicon powders (from Si-kerf) or shards (from modules recycling) to solar grade are high.

Purification of recycled silicon from end-of-life PV wastes and Si-kerf to solar grade

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• Si recovered from different sources (Si-kerf, mix of broken cells & broken cells structures, wafers or de-metallized Si from end of life panels) is purified to 2N-6N purity level.

• The purification process is characterized by a low energy consumption and has a low carbon footprint.

• De-metallized broken cells, wafers and Si from end of life panels are treated by acid leaching, while powders from Si-kerf are purified by thermal treatment.

• The resulting secondary Si feedstock has a lower carbon footprint than virgin material.


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CABRISS – Recovered Si purification

• Purification process is adapted to waste source CABRISS value chain tested with different cells technology waste (Al-BSF, HJT)

Kerf remelting and purification by special segregation process

• Purification demonstrated at lab scale and industrial scale Broken wafers / cells structures / cells wastes – more than 1500 kg

produced in the project

Si kerf – 700 kg

Waste source Purification process Expected purity

n/p-type broken cells & broken cells structure

Acid leaching 5N to 6N

Si kerfRemelting, segregation, in-house FerroGlobe process

3N to 5N

Si from EOL panels in progress > 3N


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CABRISS – Sustainable PV Production

• The pricing pressure on PV products is continuously intensified (cut of feed-in-tariffs, the global competition among manufacturers)

• Low carbon footprint is more and more required. To date, such a demand is difficult to meet because a supply of sustainably produced intermediate products is not available.

• The use of products from recycled materials for PV was tested in CABRISS (for thin and Si PV)

• The first proof of concept was reached with second life Si solar cells based on 100% recycled Si produced

• Full CABRISS value chain demonstration with production of one 60- cells PV module with a glass-glass architecture made from 100% recycled Si

Conventional production of ingots/ wafers/ PV cells and modules from recycled materials

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CABRISS – Reusing, conventional production

• Demonstration of substitution of total or partial electronic grade silicon with recycled silicon G1 / G2 size ingots production with several technologies to demonstrate the feasibility

Best results: Al-BSF @ 18.4% made from 100% recycled Si from broken wafer-to-cell wastes (DSS)

p-PERC @ 18.6% made from 100% recycled Si from broken wafer-to-cell wastes (DSS)

n-PERT @ 20% made from 5% Si scraps (Cz)

• 60- cells PV module with a glass-glass architecture made from 100% recycled Si (p-type monolike-Si, Al-BSF) Pmax = 252Wc

DSS & Cz ingots, wafers, cells made with recycled silicon60- cells Al-BSF PV module with

100% recycled silicon

Electroluminescence


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• The production of PV wafers is a very energy-intensive and costly process. Currently the cost of the silicon wafer is responsible for roughly 40% of the PV module cost and for 20-30% of the carbon footprint

Roof tile coated with Si

• The use of recycled silicon from different sources of PV waste in the following process branches:• Hot pressing process for ingot or wafers production – very

fast compaction speed and allows to dope the Si material with additional elements

• Adapted wafering process for hot pressed ingot

• Direct thermal spraying of silicon powders – a highly efficient approach which also has the advantage to be applicable to a variety of surfaces and supporting materials.

Non conventional & innovative production of ingots / wafers from recovered silicon

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Hot pressing ingot


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CABRISS – Reusing, innovative production

• Silicon substrates made with the presented innovative production technologies can be combined with an active absorber layer to form wafer equivalents.

• One way to produce wafer equivalents can be done by electron-beam deposition of a solar-grade Si base layer on the low cost substrate.

• Another way is to grow thin epitaxial silicon foils, then directly bond them to low-cost Si substrates and process them into high-efficiency Si solar cells Best result: 19.7% on bonded 5x5 cm2 epifoil cell (IMEC) on a low-

cost sintered substrate made from recycled silicon (RHP)

Bonded Si wafer equivalent concept

E-beam Si wafer equivalent concept

Low cost substrate made from recycled silicon 5x5 cm² bonded epifoil on Si substrate


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CABRISS – Intermediate Products

• Silver is an expensive highly conductive metal extensively used in the PV sector.

• Virgin silver production has well known damaging environmental effects (mercury pollution).

Ag paste / inks printing

• The use of secondary Ag recycled from PV waste for the production of conductive pastes, printable conductor and dielectric inks for PV manufacturing.

• The used polymer matrix is based on polysiloxanes, which are resistant to higher temperatures (solvent free).

• Using recycled silver will reduce cost and the demand for virgin silver in PV production

• Coating of copper particles reduces the overall silver consumption in PV manufacturing

Conductive inks and pastes produced from recovered silver

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Ag coated Cu particles


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CABRISS – Intermediate Products

• In is an expensive material widely used today in displays, PV and other fields.

• Today, indium is mostly recycled only within the production process

• The EoL recovery rate for indium is currently thought to be very low due to the high cost of recycling.

Indium sputtering target

• Indium sputtering targets and ITO targets produced using pure and secondary In recycled (90:10 wt%) from thin film PV waste.

• These targets have been successfully tested in thin film PV manufacturing.

• As the recycling technology developed within CABRISS is expected to be cost efficient on industrial level, the cost for recycled In could be lower than virgin material.

Indium sputtering targets produced from recycled indium

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• LCA provides new insights into the environmental effects of a full cradle to cradle closed loop for PV systems

• All steps are assessed based on empirical data, available from project partners.

• A modular approach allows to recombine different pathways (e.g. for production of wafers and solar cells) in a flexible way.

• The results will demonstrate how carbon footprint and energy payback time (EPBT) can be reduced and will deliver indicators for the sustainability upgrade which is possible for PV products by recycling and reuse.

• In the final LCA, additional beneficial effects of increased process- and resource-efficiencies will be calculated, as e.g. based on the innovative technologies for the production of wafer equivalents based on hot pressing ingots or thermal spraying of wafers.

CABRISS Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)


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CABRISS – Economic Perspectives

• Estimation of potential values based on the content of valuable materials in expected waste streams (indium, silver and silicon) in Europe: € 6M in 2016 and up to € 160M in 2030.

• The resale value might be significantly increased by recovery of high-quality glass, which in turn ensures that the novel high-value recycling approach developed by LOSER can be cost efficient.

• By 2030, the countries expected to face the highest amount of projected PV waste are China, Germany (up to 1 million t), and Japan, followed by Italy and France.

• Technologies that allow to retrieve sorted, high-quality, and even reusable glass panels – as targeted in the CABRISS project – may therefore have a high significance and leverage effect: improving resource and energy efficiency the added value of the process is simultaneously increased.

Value of PV end-of-life waste


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CABRISS – Economic Perspectives

• The market trend for PV cell and module manufacturing in 2016 shows an overall growth on global level.

• Only in Europe, investments declined (27%) which is attributed to a lack of policy support.

• Excellent R&D infrastructure in Europe is more and more isolated from the manufacturing basis.

PV manufacturing in Europe

• CABRISS aims at cost reduction for PV manufacturing and increased competitiveness of PV products with reduced carbon footprint and EPBT

• If market trends for sustainable products get more effective, the results may have a double beneficiary effect on the competitiveness of European PV manufacturers

CABRISS perspective


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Conclusions

• CABRISS strives to implement a full cradle-to-cradle PV circular economy, to exploit the challenge and opportunity of PV wastes in Europe and globally by developing eco-efficient technologies for recycling and reuse.

• What is new?• Economically efficient high-value recycling technology for PV panels: recovery of undamaged glass,

silver, silicon, indium and other rare metals.

• Flexible solution for recovery of silicon powders from silicon kerf.

• First manufacturing of targets based on secondary indium recycled from PV wastes.

• Reuse of recovered silver for production of conductive pastes and inks, including a resource-saving pathway through silver-coating of copper particles.

• Purification of Si to solar grade, reuse for wafer production (conventional and innovative pathways).

• Cost- and resource-efficient production of ingots by hot pressing (under development).

• Cost- and resource-efficient production of wafers by direct thermal spraying (under development).

• Novel solar cell concepts based on wafer equivalents using low-cost silicon substrates (under development).

• Ongoing tests of the outputs in standard production of solar modules (thin film and Si PV).

• Life Cycle Analysis assessing the full cradle-to-cradle value chain available by May 2018.


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Conclusions

• Advantages:

• Reduction of carbon footprint and EPBT

• Closing the loop for production of sustainable PV modules from secondary materials

• Reduced use of virgin silicon feedstock, silver and indium

• Increased eco-efficiency of solar technologies

Project coordinator David PELLETIER Jean Patrice RAKOTONIAINA

AddressCEA-INES | 50 avenue du Lac Léman

F-73375 Le Bourget-du-Lac

CEA-INES | 50 avenue du Lac Léman

F-73375 Le Bourget-du-Lac

Phone Numbers +33 (0)479-792-061 +33 (0)479-792-030

Email [email protected] [email protected]


www.spire2030.eu/cabriss

The project has received funding from the European Union‘s H2020 research and innovation programme under grant

agreement N° 641972

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