The objective of the “Revitalizing Silicon: The Path to Recovery and Revalorization” initiative is to explore and implement strategies that promote the sustainable recovery and revalorization of silicon resources.
This encompasses the development of innovative technologies and processes to efficiently extract, recycle, and repurpose silicon-based materials, with a focus on environmental preservation, economic viability, and technological advancement.
Through collaborative research, industry partnerships, and policy advocacy, this initiative aims for the following:
Resource Optimization:
Identify methods to optimize silicon resource utilization, reduce waste generation, and enhance the efficiency of extraction and refining processes.
Innovative Technologies:
Foster the research and development of cutting-edge technologies for silicon recovery and processing. This includes exploring advanced extraction techniques, refining methods, and purification processes that minimize energy consumption and environmental impact.
Material Diversification:
Investigate novel applications for silicon-derived materials beyond traditional uses.
Environmental Sustainability:
Establish guidelines and best practices to ensure that silicon recovery and revalorization processes adhere to stringent environmental standards. The initiative aims to mitigate ecological disruptions and reduce the carbon footprint associated with silicon production.
Economic Growth:
Promote the economic viability of silicon recovery and revalorization by fostering the growth of a sustainable market for recycled silicon materials. This involves engaging with industries, investors, and policymakers to create incentives and support mechanisms.
Collaborative Partnerships:
Facilitate collaborations among research institutions, industries, governmental bodies, and NGOs to pool expertise, resources, and knowledge in pursuit of shared goals related to silicon recovery and revalorization.
Public Awareness:
Raise awareness among stakeholders and the general public about the importance of silicon recovery and revalorization for a sustainable future. Communicate the benefits of these initiatives in terms of resource conservation, reduced environmental impact, and technological innovation.
Challenges with recovery of silicon
- Separating and recovering pure silicon from this complex material composition.
- The increasing adoption of solar energy has led to a significant growth in PV installations, resulting in a corresponding increase in PV waste.
- Fragmentation and Fragment Handling of silicon cells.
- Contaminants and impurities, such as metals and organic materials, present in silicon PV cells.
- Energy consumption, emissions, and any potential hazardous by-products or waste generated during the recycling process.
Each year Signicent provides consultancy to hundreds of organizations to help transform their innovations to value.
Innovations
- The Technology Scouting team at Signicent has located a development in recovering silicon from discarded photovoltaic waste. This achievement holds the key to creating environmentally friendly lithium-ion batteries with a sustainable approach.
- A significant leap forward has been achieved in developing a highly efficient method for extracting pure silicon from photovoltaic waste. A notable aspect of this progress is the utilization of a single reagent, simplifying the process of reclaiming exceptionally pure silicon with an unmatched rate of material recovery.
- In this innovative process, phosphoric acid (H3PO4) has emerged as the optimal reagent. It plays a crucial role in targeting the anti-reflective coating, allowing for the precise separation of silver (Ag) and aluminum (Al) components from the surfaces of silicon wafers.
- Deakin University, along with Delaminating Resources and Close the Loop collaborated on a project to improve lithium-ion batteries.
- The project involved purifying processes, identifying crucial properties, preparing battery materials, creating electrodes from various substances, evaluating battery performance through tests like charge/discharge cycles, cycling stability, and impedance spectroscopy.
Market insight
Signicent’s Market intelligence team has come across some market insights where Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the largest and the fastest growing market, owing to the largest share in terms of solar power generation and the presence of manufacturing and technology hubs, such as China and Japan.
The crystalline silicon segment is expected to dominate the market for solar panel recycling, due to higher number of installations globally.
Market research
According to Signicent’s Market experts, the revalorization and recovery silicon market is anticipated to achieve a value of approximately $28.76 million by the year 2028.
This projection reflects a substantial increase from its valuation of $339.78 million in 2023. The (CAGR) for this period is estimated to be approximately 20.23%.
Key players
Signicent has come across some illuminating key players across the globe Trina Solar, SunPower , Reiling Group and Envaris
