CdTe Panel Recycling: Closed-Loop Recovery of Cadmium and Tellurium

… more less CdTe panel recycling is one of the few closed loops in the solar industry. Old or broken panels are shredded and crushed. Then a mix of acid and hydrogen peroxide dissolves the thin film off the glass pieces. The peroxide oxidizes the CdTe so it goes into solution. The clean glass is rinsed and sold as cullet, which is crushed glass for new glass. The metal-rich liquid is treated so that cadmium and tellurium drop out as solids. These are refined and used to make new panels. Most of a panel's mass is glass, so most of the mass is recovered. Most of the metal in the film is recovered too. The process uses acids and makes some wastewater, which is neutralized and treated before release. A maker-run take-back program has worked this way for many years. That matters because it keeps cadmium out of landfills and stretches the rare tellurium supply. The weak points are the cost of collecting panels and the panels that never come back. After this Concept you can describe how a CdTe panel is recycled and judge a claim about thin-film waste.