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Recycling of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2021) | Viewed by 2547

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Gdańsk University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Gdańsk, Poland
Interests: photovoltaic solar cells and modules; renewable sources; waste energy recovery; solar radiation; material recycling; energy storage

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Photovoltaic technology is used worldwide to provide reliable and cost-effective electricity for industrial, commercial, residential, and community applications. The average lifetime of PV modules can be expected to be more than 25 years. The disposal of photovoltaic modules has emerged as a problem, considering the still increasing production of PV modules. Recovering valuable materials, especially pure silicon, from damaged or end-of-life PV modules can lead to economic and environmental benefits. 

The recycling of solar panels is complicated because of the decades-long interval between installing and discarding modules, different production technology, and their geographical dispersion. 

Environmental regulations can determine the cost and complexity of dealing with end-of-life photovoltaic modules. If they are classified as hazardous, then special requirements for material handling, disposal, record-keeping, and reporting will escalate the cost of module decommissioning. 

Many researchers have asserted a need to re-use valuable materials from damaged and spent crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules, but no viable solutions have been to this problem have been found.  

We kindly invite you to submit a manuscript(s) for this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Ewa Klugmann-Radziemska
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Photovoltaic solar cells
  • Photovoltaic modules
  • Crystalline silicon
  • Recycling
  • Reuse
  • Solar energy
  • Renewable energy sources

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

10 pages, 1993 KiB  
Article
Recovery of Valuable Materials and Methods for Their Management When Recycling Thin-Film CdTe Photovoltaic Modules
by Anna Kuczyńska-Łażewska, Ewa Klugmann-Radziemska and Agnieszka Witkowska
Materials 2021, 14(24), 7836; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14247836 - 17 Dec 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2130
Abstract
Due to the development of new photovoltaic technologies, there is a need to research new recycling methods for these new materials. The recovery of metals from photovoltaic (PV) modules would reduce the consumption of raw materials. Therefore, the development of recycling technologies for [...] Read more.
Due to the development of new photovoltaic technologies, there is a need to research new recycling methods for these new materials. The recovery of metals from photovoltaic (PV) modules would reduce the consumption of raw materials. Therefore, the development of recycling technologies for used and damaged modules of newer generations is important for environmental reasons. The aim of the research is to shed light on the nature of the chemical reactions that occur in recycling technology for second-generation photovoltaic modules. This work is focused mainly on cells made of Cadmium Telluride (CdTe). It was proven that prior thermal delamination was necessary. Moreover, an improvement in understanding of the recovery process depending on used leaching solution was achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recycling of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells)
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