Physical and chemical pathways for economic recycling of cadmium telluride thin-film photovoltaic modules

There is a great potential that polycrystalline thin-film CdTe photovoltaic module technologies will be able to reduce manufacturing costs enough to open vast new markets. One aspect that must be addressed, however, is the environmental implication of Cd. In this paper, research conducted to explore possible economic and environmentally sensible recycling techniques is described. A successful mechanical treatment was water blasting with 40000 psi water. A successful chemical technique was dissolving the semiconductors and metals with 6% sulfuric acid and 1.5% hydrogen peroxide then treated by precipitation, electroplating, or ion exchange. The result of the study show an estimated net cost of $0.04-$0.06/W.