PURSILICON - Study of the influence of the physicochemical characteristics resulting from the recycling of photovoltaic panels

The problem with recycling lies in the difficulty of establishing a sustainable and economically viable business. The recycling of photovoltaic panels (PPV) is no exception to this rule, even though future recycling volumes will be significant. To boost the sector's profitability and facilitate its rapid development, it is crucial to focus on the purification of fractions at the end of the process to optimize their value.

Currently, the 5% mass silicon contained in a photovoltaic panel is regarded as low-value waste and used as aggregate in metallurgical smelting furnaces, leading to a significant loss of revenue given the high initial purity of silicon (99.9999%) and the environmental impact associated with its production. It is therefore essential to consider an alternative method for recovering this silicon.

This is the background to the PurSilicon project, which is exploring the possibility of using this silicon as an anode material for Li-ion batteries, thereby turning obsolete photovoltaic panels into a new source of high value-added raw material.