Solar Panel Recycling Plant

Solar panel recycling plant is a fully automated recycling system specifically designed for the sustainable processing of end-of-life, decommissioned, or damaged photovoltaic modules. The system employs advanced mechanical, thermal, and chemical refining processes to extract high-purity glass, aluminum, silicon, copper, and silver, among other valuable materials.

Raw Materials:Scrap, decommissioned or damaged photovoltaic modules.
Final Products: Glass, aluminum, silicon, copper, silver and plastic.
Main Part: solar panel junction box removing machine, solar panel aluminum frame removing machine, solar panel glass removing machine, solar panel pyrolysis tunnel furnace, silver stripping machine, etc.

Product Description

Our independently developed large-scale solar photovoltaic module recycling equipment boasts advantages such as environmental friendliness, non-toxicity, high separation efficiency, low cost, and ease of processing, making it of significant application and academic value. This equipment employs physical and pyrolysis processes to extract glass, junction box, aluminum, silicon powder, copper powder, EVA plastic powder, and precious metal silver, transforming solar waste into high-value recycled raw materials and maximizing the return on investment.

The Value of Recycling

Waste solar photovoltaic panels have extremely high recycling value, with a material recyclability rate exceeding 95%. It is estimated that by 2030, the cumulative value of raw materials recycled from photovoltaic panels globally will reach US$450 million; by 2050, this cumulative value will exceed US$15 billion. Crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels are mainly composed of glass, aluminum, silicon, copper, and precious silver, among other materials:

Aluminum (approximately 10% of total weight): Primarily from the frame. Aluminum recycling technology is very mature, achieving 100% purity, and the recycling price per ton can reach thousands of US dollars, making it the most significant direct profit point in the current recycling industry chain.

Glass (approximately 70% of total weight): Mainly high-purity ultra-clear tempered glass. Although the price of waste glass itself is not high (approximately 600 yuan/ton), after high-purity stripping using specialized equipment, it can be reused as an industrial raw material.

High-value metals (silver and copper): Although silver and copper account for less than 1% of photovoltaic panels, they have the highest economic value. Through pyrolysis and chemical purification technologies, copper and silver powders with a purity of up to 99% can be refined, significantly increasing the recycling premium of the entire photovoltaic panel.

Silicon (approximately 5% of total weight): Low-purity industrial-grade silicon recovered from old panels is worth about $2/kg. If purified to “solar-grade silicon” (costing approximately $25/kg) using advanced processes, its recycling benefits will increase exponentially.

Physical Recycling Process of Solar Panels

The physical recycling process of solar panels mainly relies on mechanical dismantling, crushing, grinding, and physical sorting to achieve material separation without altering the chemical properties of the materials. Our advanced solar panel recycling machine ensures continuous and efficient material recycling through the following steps.

1. Component Pre-disassembly: Automated disassembly equipment is used to remove the aluminum alloy frame and back junction box of the waste photovoltaic panels.

2. Mechanical Glass Peeling: Using a glass remover or blade rolling technology, the tempered glass on the surface is peeled off from the internal laminates. This typically removes about 70%-80% of the broken glass from the panel surface.

3. Crushing and Shredding: The pre-treated photovoltaic panels (with aluminum frames and glass removed) first enter a twin-shaft crusher and are torn into strips. Then, the material enters a shredder and is shredded into small pieces of 1-2 cm.

4. Grinding and Air Separation: These fine materials are fed into a fine grinder under negative pressure. Our fine grinder is equipped with a return system to recover any particles that do not meet size requirements. Qualified materials then enter an air separator, where the difference in density between the materials separates the lightweight plastics (EVA, backsheet) from the heavier silicon powder.

5. High-Precision Physical Sorting: The mixture of plastics and trace metals is fed into an electrostatic separator. Electrostatic separators efficiently separate metal particles from plastic debris based on differences in conductivity. This efficient step ensures the precise separation and recycling of pure plastics and high-purity metals, ultimately yielding high-quality products.

6. Silver Extraction from Silicon Powder: Silver and silicon (99.99% purity) are extracted from silicon powder through a precious metals refinery.

Final Products: Junction box, aluminum frame, glass, silicon powder, copper powder, EVA plastic, silver.

Pyrolysis Recycling Process of Solar Panels

Pyrolysis recovery methods typically involve high-temperature heating in an oxygen-free or oxygen-deficient closed environment, causing the organic encapsulation materials (EVA film, backsheet plastic) to undergo thermal decomposition or carbonization, thereby achieving complete separation of glass from silicon solar cells. Here, we have developed a cutting-edge pyrolysis separation technology (tunnel furnace pyrolysis), which, through fully automated intelligent control, can completely separate copper wires, silicon wafers, and glass, making the refining and extraction of silver simple and efficient.

1. Module Pre-disassembly: Automated disassembly equipment is used to remove the aluminum alloy frame and the junction box on the back of the waste photovoltaic panels.

2. Pyrolysis Separation: The pre-treated photovoltaic panels (with the aluminum frame and junction box removed) are sent to a dedicated photovoltaic tunnel furnace for pyrolysis. Afterwards, a mixture of copper wire, silicon wafers, and glass is obtained.

3. Material Separation: The pyrolysis-completed mixture of copper wire, silicon wafers, and glass is separated using our self-developed sorting system to obtain copper wire, silicon wafers, and glass for subsequent silver extraction.

4. Silver Extraction from Silicon Wafers: Silver (99.99% purity) is extracted from the silicon wafers using a Silver Stripping Machine.

Final Products: Junction box, aluminum frame, glass, silicon wafer, copper wire, silver

Our Solar Panel Recycling Plant Advantages:

1.Fully Automated and High Efficiency: The process design is fully automated, significantly reducing labor costs and accelerating the processing speed to enhance overall production efficiency.

2.Eco-Friendly Physical Process: The entire system relies on purely physical means. Crucially, the equipment is equipped with dust removal equipment, ensuring no dust and pollution occur during the working process.

3.Fully Automated Pyrolysis Process: The core advantages of fully automated pyrolysis technology lie in its lossless recovery, extremely high purity, high automation, and energy self-sufficiency.

4.High-Purity Final Products: The integrated crushing and sorting processes yield high-quality output materials, including high-purity metal powder and plastic.The recovery rate of copper and silver is over 99%, with a purity as high as 99.99%.

Technical Parameters

Model	Power(KW)	Dimension(mm)	Capacity
PVR-60	300	5500086715000	50-60PCS/H
PVR-1500	390	5700080006000	1000-1500KG/H
PVR-F60	240	108000110005500	50-60PCS/H

we are a solar panel recycling plant and machine manufacturer.