Metal recovery from copper indium gallium selenide solar cells by using microwave pyrolysis, thermal oxidation and thermal chlorination
Journal
Process Safety and Environmental Protection
Journal Volume
190
Start Page
226
End Page
232
ISSN
0957-5820
Date Issued
2024-10
Author(s)
DOI
10.1016/j.psep.2024.07.042
Abstract
In this study, metal recovery from copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells was carried out by using microwave pyrolysis, thermal oxidation and thermal chlorination technologies. Microwave pyrolysis provided over 90 % weight loss of CIGS solar cells, showing the potential of energy recovery. The temperature required for microwave pyrolysis was much lower than that for conventional pyrolysis. The full recovery of selenium from CIGS solar cells was achieved by thermal oxidation at 800 °C for 30 min, whereas it would need 40 min to reach the full recovery at 600 °C. Only gallium was recovered by using thermal chlorination at 260 °C, with the recovery rate of 56 %. Gallium was almost fully recovered at 380 °C, whereas the complete recovery of indium would be reached at 580 °C. According to kinetic analysis, about one-sixth of time can be saved for the complete deselenization of CIGS solar cells when increasing the heating temperature from 600 °C to 800 °C. To achieve 99.99 % fraction of chlorination, it would take 2.23 h for gallium at 380 °C and 1.79 h for indium at 580 °C, showing that the processing time set for thermal chlorination is sufficient.
Subjects
Copper indium gallium selenide solar cells
Metal recovery
Microwave pyrolysis
Reaction kinetics
Thermal chlorination
Thermal oxidation
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Type
journal article