Title | CABRISS: Recycling of Si-Kerf from PV |
Author(s) | Terje Halvorsen, Monica Moen, K. Mork, Delphine Grosset-Bourbange, Pascal Rivat, Hamza Hajjaji, Virginie Brizé, Fabrice Coustier |
Keywords | PV Materials, Recycling, Sustainable, Silicon |
Topic | Performance, Reliability and Sustainability of Photovoltaic Modules and Balance of System Components |
Subtopic | Sustainability and Recycling |
Event | EU PVSEC 2017 |
Session | 5EO.1.5 |
Pages manuscript | 1524 - 1527 |
ISBN | 3-936338-47-7 |
DOI | 10.4229/EUPVSEC20172017-5EO.1.5 |
The European Horizon 2020 project CABRISS [1] aim to implement a circular economy for solar cells based on recycled, reused and recovered materials. One important pillar in this project is the recycling of silicon kerf from diamond wire cutting of wafers and blocks. The first objective is to optimize Si-kerf environment in order to facilitate silicon recycling. The second is to demonstrate the full purification of Si-kerf at industrial scale. A recycling process has to be flexible since the silicon kerf will vary in shape, size, contamination level and concentration from source to source. CEA, FerroPem and Resitec have achieved interesting results on this topic within the CABRISS project. Important topics for investigation have been the influence of additives and sawing conditions [2], wet and dry mechanical separation methods and further purification by pyro metallurgical processes. Si-kerf has been recycled into 2-4N silicon powder in pilot scale and industrial scale with an acceptable oxygen content. This material has been successfully melted, purified and used for ingot production. There are also several safety topics that need to be investigated for scale up of the recycling process. Recycling of Si-kerf has been demonstrated at an industrial scale.