Australian researchers have unveiled a breakthrough recycling technique that could dramatically improve how valuable metals are recovered from end-of-life solar panels, addressing one of the solar industry’s most pressing circular-economy challenges.
Scientists at the University of Newcastle have developed a fast, safe and highly effective method to recover high-grade silver from end-of-life photovoltaic (PV) panels without using acid. The process can recover more than 97 per cent of the silver contained in a panel in just a few minutes – a significant departure from existing methods that are slow, chemical-intensive and difficult to scale.
The research was led by Mahshid Firouzi, Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Critical Minerals and Urban Mining (CRITIUM), and brings together established mineral-processing techniques in a novel application for solar recycling.
Current silver-recovery methods typically rely on aggressive chemical leaching processes that can take hours to complete, generate hazardous waste streams and pose safety risks. These limitations have long hindered large-scale recovery of high-value metals from retired PV panels, despite their growing volumes.
By contrast, the Newcastle team’s approach uses a physical separation process combining comminution and flotation. Panels are first mechanically crushed and ground into fine particles. The material then undergoes froth flotation. This is a technique widely used in mining where water, air bubbles and small amounts of standard flotation reagents selectively lift silver particles to the surface while waste material sinks.
“By using flotation – a fast and well-established minerals beneficiation technique – we can recover almost all of the silver in an end-of-life solar panel in just a few minutes, without using any acid,” said Associate Professor Firouzi.
“While froth flotation is widely used in mining to separate valuable minerals from ore, this is, to our knowledge, the first demonstration of froth flotation for recovery of metallic silver from recycled, ground solar panels – something many in the field believed was not feasible.”
The implications are significant. End-of-life PV panels can contain silver concentrations of 300-500 parts per million (ppm), comparable to (and in some cases exceeding) the cut-off grades of primary silver mines. With Australia leading the world in solar uptake on a per-capita basis, the resource potential locked up in ageing panels is substantial.
By 2050, more than one million tonnes of waste solar panels are expected in Australia alone, containing an estimated 300-500 tonnes of silver. Unlocking this value could reduce reliance on primary mining, lower environmental impacts and create new domestic resource-recovery industries.
The breakthrough follows an 18-month collaborative study between two University of Newcastle research centres based at the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER). The project team included PhD candidate Hamidreza Saffarian from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (COEMinerals), and Laureate Professor Kevin Galvin, Director of both research centres.
The researchers tested and refined the process using real end-of-life PV samples supplied by industry partner Circular Solar Solutions. The work was also supported by KGM Services Pty Ltd/The Solar Professionals through a Cooperative Research Centres Projects funding grant.
Jeremy Grant of The Solar Professionals said: “We’re excited about the opportunities to further refine and apply the techniques to advance metal recovery from end-of-life PVs in future. This is a great team and University for innovative-active firms to collaborate with.”
Silver is said to just be the beginning. The research team is now investigating recovery pathways for silicon, which makes up nearly 90 per cent of the weight of a crystalline solar cell and is a critical input for global solar manufacturing.
“Silver was our first test case, but there are likely significant opportunities to apply comminution, flotation science and hydrodynamic techniques to unlock billions of dollars’ worth of other metals and minerals currently trapped in urban and mining waste,” Associate Professor Firouzi said.
“We cannot afford to let these valuable resources go to waste.”
Ultimately, the project aims to commercialise sustainable end-of-life solutions for PV panels, supporting a circular economy while creating new jobs in resource recovery and advanced manufacturing.
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