Researchers have assessed the environmental and economic performance of recycling strategies for frameless glass-glass PV modules encapsulated with polyolefin elastomer (POE), a design increasingly used in bifacial modules.
Most PV recycling studies have focused on conventional modules with ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant, a plastic backsheet and an aluminum frame, the researchers said.
The international research team compared three scenarios for recycling one complete module weighing about 27 kg. The first applied thermal and chemical treatment to the whole module. The second used mechanical treatment and selective processing, limiting thermal treatment to selected fractions. The third added further fractionation after thermal treatment, using electrostatic corona separation.
Each scenario was assessed with two chemical routes for metal recovery: sodium hydroxide (NaOH) followed by ammonia and hydrogen peroxide (NH3 + H2O2), and nitric acid with hydrogen peroxide (HNO3 + H2O2).
The researchers described the work as an early-stage comparative study based on their earlier laboratory-scale recycling results. They carried out a “gate-to-gate” life cycle assessment with credits for avoided primary materials, using ReCiPe 2016 midpoint indicators. The economic assessment used a process-level operational margin based on revenue from recovered materials and selected operating costs, excluding capital costs and equipment maintenance.
Under baseline assumptions, the two targeted scenarios reduced energy demand and improved impacts such as global warming, with the third scenario generally achieving the lowest processing burden. Whole-module treatment retained stronger benefits in several material-driven impact categories because it recovered more material for credit. The preferred chemical route depended on the impact category.
The operational margin was positive in all cases, and silver dominated recovered material revenue despite its very low mass.
The researchers cautioned that the targeted scenarios depend on electrostatic separation efficiencies and material values drawn from the literature that were not experimentally validated for the studied material streams. Lower electrostatic recovery and substitution performance could remove their advantage in some impact categories.
“The results highlight the trade-offs between reducing treatment intensity and maintaining sufficiently high material recovery and value,” the researchers wrote.
Design changes
The researchers noted that frameless construction is a separate design choice from POE encapsulation and glass-glass architecture, and that frameless modules are expected to keep a market share of about 5% over the coming decade. Removing the frame eliminates the de-framing step in recycling, but aluminum frames are relatively easy to recover and contribute substantially to recycling revenue in conventional modules. Glass-glass designs eliminate the plastic backsheet and increase the amount and importance of recoverable glass.
The study builds on the group’s earlier work on POE delamination and on mechanically driven hybrid recycling of POE glass-glass modules. Lithuanian manufacturer Soli Tek provided material for the research.
The findings appear in “Life cycle impact and economic assessment of recycling strategies for frameless POE encapsulated glass–glass photovoltaic modules,” which was recently published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells by Aistis Rapolas Zubas, Jolita Kruopienė, Gintaras Denafas, Floriana La Marca and Alessandra Bonoli.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales, Gdansk University of Technology and the Polish Academy of Sciences found that silver can make up to 47% of a module’s recoverable value, though falling silver content in newer panels will lower future recycling revenue. In separate work, researchers from Spain’s Public University of Navarra and CENER compared delamination of EVA, POE and thermoplastic polyolefin encapsulants, finding that EVA and POE required similar forces once heated beyond their melting ranges.
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