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Project: LIFE24-ENV-IT-SIRCULAR (Grant Agreement 01213673)
Title: Industrial Recycling Solutions for Silicon and Silver from EoL Photovoltaic Panels

Programme: EU LIFE – Environment & Climate Action

Background:
The exponential growth of the photovoltaic (PV) sector in recent years, driven by the need to accelerate the energy transition, is creating a new environmental challenge: the management of end-of-life (EoL) PV panels. According to IEA/IRENA, millions of tons of EoL PV panels will need to be processed in the next 15 years. Currently, industrial recycling mainly relies on mechanical-physical treatments, which allow the recovery of glass, aluminum, and copper, representing approximately 90% by weight of the panels. The residual fraction is shredded, generating a powder primarily composed of silicon and silver, for which no economically sustainable industrial process exists, leaving it largely unvalorized. Metallic silicon is classified by the European Commission as a Critical Raw Material (CRM), while silver, in addition to its high economic value, plays a strategic role in technological applications. The lack of valorization of these fractions results in significant economic losses and reduces the security of critical material supplies for Europe.

Objectives:
LIFE SIRCULAR is a close-to-market project that will demonstrate and bring to full industrial scale (TRL 9) an integrated physical + hydrometallurgical value chain for the simultaneous recovery of high-purity metallic silicon and silver from EoL PV panels.
The physical line will be implemented at an industrial scale, with a capacity exceeding 10,000 t/year, while the hydrometallurgical line will valorize fine fractions currently unrecoverable, adopting a Minimum-Liquid-Discharge approach, with reagent recycling and a significant reduction of environmental impact.

Partners’ Roles:
The LIFE SIRCULAR project involves partners with complementary roles:

  • Circular Silicon GmbH (CSE): Develops and implements the innovative physical process for the recovery of metallic silicon from EoL PV panels, achieving up to 90% silicon purity in the initial separation stage and subsequently >99% in the refining stage through mechanical and electrostatic separation and patented technologies. CSE targets industrial capacity exceeding 10,000 t/year and TRL 9 for both separation and silicon refining.
  • University of L’Aquila (UNIVAQ, Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics): Optimizes the process for silver recovery according to the “silver-REC” patent and refines treated powders to remove contaminants, making the material suitable for Circular Silicon’s physical line for metallic silicon recovery.
  • Smart Waste Engineering (SWE): Responsible for the engineering and industrial implementation of the hydrometallurgical line.
  • BFC Sistemi: Handles engineering and construction of the industrial hydrometallurgical plant, acquiring know-how to commercialize turnkey silver-silicon recycling plants.
  • ORIM Srl: Provides the industrial site for the hydrometallurgical plant (TRL 9), manages authorizations, industrial validation, and product commercialization, also acting as a showcase to attract potential technology customers.