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End of Life Management and Recycling of Crystalline Silicon Solar Panels
Dalarna University, School of Information and Engineering, Energy Technology.
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Photovoltaic (PV) cumulative waste reached 250000 t worldwide by the end of 2016 and is expected to increase to 8 million tons in 2030 and about 78 million tons in 2050. Therefore, adequate end-of-life (EOL) management for PV modules should be developed. Most of the EOL modules go to landfill currently. The main reason is that processes for recycling PV modules are not economically feasible and in most of countries regulation is not yet well established. However, several methods are being developed for recycling PV modules. An investigation is conducted to compare the different EOL options of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar modules, including landfill, incineration, reuse, and recycling (mechanical, thermal, and chemical pathways). This investigation is done based on a combination of data and some assumptions. The results show that material recovery from solar modules, given our assumptions, produces fewer environmental impacts than other EOL scenarios. By adopting more complex processes that can recover more material, the effects are even less. Even though recycling processes can achieve good recycling rates and recover almost all materials from solar modules, the use of toxic substances in chemical recycling routes and the distance to recycling centers due to the effects of transportation, should be considered. The major drawback of the solar photovoltaic energy is toxicity effect and climate change. Focusing on solar panel recycling reveals that lesser environmental effect is posed by it rather than landfill. The environmental effect of crystalline solar photovoltaic panel is reviewed in this thesiswork, emphasizing on their decommissioning and recycling portion. The study reviews the pollution causing process of production of crystalline silicon and solar cell processing. This work also reviews material recovery rate and discovering environmentally amiable substance for recycling. The impact of recycling technologies on environment for c-Si solar modules is assessed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
National Category
Energy Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-42274OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-42274DiVA, id: diva2:1690566
Subject / course
Energy Technology
Available from: 2022-08-26 Created: 2022-08-26

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf