Silver Recovery from Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Solar Cells Using Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactors

Silver can be recycled from the end-of-life crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV), yet the recycling and its technology scale-up are still at an early stage especially in continuously operations e.g., continoursely stirred tank reactors (CSTR). Here, the silver recovery from the solar cells is technically understood and optimized in the CSTR system from the point of view of silver recovery efficiency, through integrating experimental and numerical investigations. Specifically, based on the experiments, a kinetics model is developed and scanning electron microscopy surface morphology is characterized; and a computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) particle-scale model is integrated with the kinetics model and validated against the fluid-flow pattern and silver leaching performance results from lab measurements. The validated CFD-DEM model is then applied to understand the particle-scale behavior of silver leaching in the CSTR system in terms of hydrodynamics and AgNO₃ distribution under different impeller speeds. The simulation results show that the silver leaching performance is improved in an improved CSTR design with a lower impeller position and doubled impeller layers. This work reveals the effectiveness and underlying hydrodynamics of silver leaching in CSTR systems and lays a foundation for improving silver recovery in PV recycling.