A process to recycle thin film PV materials

The wide scale interest in the commercial potential of cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium diselenide (CIS) photovoltaic modules is tempered by the use of toxic metals such as cadmium and selenium in their manufacture. Drinkard Metalox has adapted hydrometallurgical technology to recycle CdTe cells. The process removes all the Cd and Te while, enabling reuse of substrates. Downstream processing recovers Te as metal from the lixivant, and removal of the lixivant leaves behind a pure Cd product. This process can also be utilized to process CIS cells. The lixivant will remove all the photoactive metals from the substrate of scrap CIS cells. A metallic stream of mixed Cu and Se metal is removed from the leachate by electrochemical methods. Subsequent processing will win purified Se.