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Description
The problem is that children in developing countries are doing our dirty work. Electronic waste that end up in landfills in these developing countries pose a danger to the children extracting metals that are then resold in local markets. The dumping of solar panels in these landfills is sometimes the only alternative for some manufactures because there is no viable option for silicon wafers. Solar panel installations started to peak in the early 1990's . With the lifespan of a solar panel being 25 years, recycling these panel is not a priority task in government policies. First Solar is currently the only company in the United States that executes the full recycling process. However, there is an environmental hotspot and an energy intensity phase identified in their process. The second stage in First Solar's recycling method consist of hammering and shredding the solar panel to reduce the surface area to then move on the chemical path stage. This stage currently uses 1.1 kWh for a meter by meter solar cell. A thermal processing method was explored and found to be the most environmentally conscious chose in terms of emissions and energy cost. The thermal method uses a conventional furnace to burn away the EVA, leaving the internal components of the cell intact and ready for the remaining process of recycling. SLICE method aims to introduce an industry tailored, low energy cost process, that initiates a solar panel recycling infrastructure in the United States. The recycling infrastructure is needed to sustain the exponential growth of solar panels and avoid third party recycling to developing countries. This new method transitions from lab tested batch processes to a continuous process.
ContributorsMartinez, Mariana (Co-author) / Grayson, Madison (Co-author) / Seager, Thomas (Thesis director) / Ravikumar, Dwarak (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05