PHOtovoltaic waste management – advanced Technologies for recOvery and recycling of secondary RAw MAterials from end-of-life modules

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Since the last decades, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) have been drastically increasing in Europe, particularly for recent technologies such as Photovoltaic (PV) devices. These products are designed as complex sandwiches, which make the recovery of the critical (Si, In, Ga) and precious (Ag) raw materials encapsulated in the layers extremely challenging. The overall objective of PHOTORAMA is to draw up a profitable and sustainable circular value chain that will lead to a carbon neutral PV industry. PHOTORAMA will develop and demonstrate the industrial prospective of recycling solutions to recover and recycle all the materials ‘components from End-of-life PV panels. A complementary consortium of 13 European companies and research institutes has built the framework of PHOTORAMA as follow: (1) the development of innovative processes and technologies from TRL4-5 to TRL7 to establish a sound recycling scheme to increase significantly resource efficiency with decisive cost-cutting solutions. The implementation of automated disassembly and sandwich opening as layer separation (MONDRAGON, DFD, CEA) enabling high-recovery (> 95%) of secondary raw materials: Ag, Si (SINTEF, CEA, IDENER) and In, Ga (LUXCHEMTECH) from EoL PV panels (crystalline silicon, thin films), (2) the full-circularity approach emphasised from collection (SOREN) to marketable new products from Si, In, Ga, Ag (RHP), glass (MALTHA) mainly for PV manufacturing (EGP), (3) the demonstration of the business viability and attractiveness of its technological solutions (BIFA, ENEA) as one of the most competitive perspective for PV recycling. PHOTORAMA will strengthen this ambitious model with environmental impacts assessments and a strategic dissemination and exploitation plan supported by a strong effort for raising societal awareness (ZSI). The implementation of PHOTORAMA recycling scheme would unlock already more than 100,000 tons of valuable secondary raw materials by 2030.