A Proactive Approach to the Recovery and Recycling of Photovoltaic Modules
FUNDING PROGRAM AND AREA
HORIZON-CL5-2022-D3-03-09 - Recycling end of life PV modules
DURATION
Starting date - Jan 2024
End date - Dec 2026
OUR ROLE
Piloting line assessment
COORDINATOR
FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV
ABOUT
The APOLLO project, an acronym for “A Proactive Approach to the Recovery and Recycling of Photovoltaic Modules” is a 36-month research project co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101122277
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APOLLO will create a circular approach to link legacy recycling, future production, and future recycling. A pilot line will be demonstrated and used to process an input of 40 tonnes of PV waste which will be recycled, resulting in enough reclaimed materials for 1 tonne of remanufactured silicon and 30 exemplar PV modules. Incoming modules will be streamed by glass composition, enabling batch recovery of high-quality glass, to be used for new solar-grade glass. A novel continuous ‘sonification’ technique, (ultrasonically excited etchant) will rapidly separate silicon, silver, copper, and other metals in a sequence along a pipe-based process. Used liquid etchants will be recycled in a closed loop resulting in low waste, and a small footprint. Further, recovered silicon will be refined to a purity suitable for new PV-grade ingot growth.
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The objective is to deliver purified silicon with a minimum purity of 99.9999%. Multiple innovations increase the percentage of weight recovery from 18% to 93%.
PARTNERS
