LEACHING OF CADMIUM, TELLURIUM AND COPPER FROM CADMIUM TELLURIDE PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES.

FTHENAKIS,V.

BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

关键词: Copper;    Leaching;    14 Solar Energy;    Recycling;    Scrap;   

DOI  :  10.2172/15007145
RP-ID  :  BNL--72178-2004-IR
RP-ID  :  DE-AC02-98CH10886
RP-ID  :  15007145

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

Separating the metals from the glass is the first step in recycling end-of-life cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules and manufacturing scrap. We accomplished this by leaching the metals in solutions of various concentrations of acids and hydrogen peroxide. A relatively dilute solution of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide was found to be most effective for leaching cadmium and tellurium from broken pieces of CdTe PV modules. A solution comprising 5 mL of hydrogen peroxide per kg of PV scrap in 1 M sulfuric acid, gave better results than the 12 mL H{sub 2}O{sub 2}/kg, 3.2 M H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} solution currently used in the industry. Our study also showed that this dilute solution is more effective than hydrochloric-acid solutions and it can be reused after adding a small amount of hydrogen peroxide. These findings, when implemented in large-scale operation, would result in significant savings due to reductions in volume of the concentrated leaching agents (H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} and H{sub 2}O{sub 2}) and of the alkaline reagents required to neutralize the residuals of leaching.