Method and system for recovering photovoltaic panel constituent materials

Abstract

To provide a method for recovering a valuable of high quality from a photovoltaic cell panel in which glass is broken at low cost.SOLUTION: A method for recovering a constituent material of a photovoltaic cell panel includes: a heat treatment decomposition step of heat treating a photovoltaic cell panel, thereby forming it into a heat-treated product from which a resin member has been removed; a screening step of screening the heat-treated product; a wind force screening step of screening a minus sieve screened in the screening step by wind force screening, into a light product and a heavy product; and an air table screening step of screening the heavy product into a glass base material, and a metal-containing base material by an air table.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for recovering constituent materials of a photovoltaic panel, and also to a system for recovering constituent materials of a photovoltaic panel. [Background technology]

[0002] As renewable energy, photovoltaic power generation and wind power generation are used. Photovoltaic power generation uses solar cell modules that use photovoltaic cell panels. Many of these solar cell modules have a useful life of about 20 years, and recycling of solar cell modules that have exceeded their useful life will become even more important in the future. The following documents have been disclosed regarding the recycling of solar cell modules.

[0003] Patent Document 1 discloses a method for recovering constituent materials of solar cell elements contained in a solar cell module, which comprises the steps of transporting solar cell elements including at least a cell portion and a glass substrate, and an ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) sealing material bonded to these, to a continuous heat treatment furnace in which the oxygen concentration inside the furnace is maintained at 1.0 volume % or more and 3.0 volume % or less, releasing and removing acetic acid gas, which is one type of EVA decomposition gas, in a preliminary thermal decomposition section set at 300 to 400°C, and subsequently desorbing EVA decomposition gases other than acetic acid in a heat treatment section set at 400 to 550°C, thereby removing the EVA sealing material from the solar cell elements, and separating the cell portion from the glass substrate.

[0004] Patent Document 2 discloses a method for recycling a solar cell module that includes a cover glass, a battery layer, and a sealing material that adheres these together, in which the interface between the cover glass and the sealing material is heated to a predetermined temperature range, and while the interface maintains the predetermined temperature range, force is applied to the sealing material from a side of the solar cell module, thereby peeling off the sealing material and the battery layer from the interface.

[0005] Patent Document 3 relates to an electrical component recovery device for a solar cell module that recovers electrical components from a solar cell module formed by sandwiching electrical components including solar cells and their wiring between a glass substrate and a back sheet using a sealing material, and relates to an electrical component recovery device for a solar cell module that recovers as many electrical components as possible from a sheet-like member from which substantially the entire glass substrate has been removed in advance from the solar cell module and in which the electrical components remain attached to the back sheet. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] JP 2014-108375 A [Patent Document 2] WO2019 / 203026 [Patent Document 3] JP 2020-131165 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] Patent Document 1 discloses a method of removing the aluminum frame, then removing the sealing material (EVA) by thermal decomposition, thereby separating and recovering components such as glass substrates and cell materials. Patent Documents 2 and 3 disclose methods of crushing the glass surface with a crushing roller, recovering the glass, and then dissolving valuable materials contained in the remaining sealing material with a chemical solution and recovering them, or scraping them off with a brush roller and recovering them.

[0008] The method of Patent Document 1 had a problem in that when broken glass was subjected to thermal decomposition treatment, the glass substrate was mixed with the cell part, electrodes, etc., and it was sometimes difficult to separate and recover the glass, cells, and copper wires.

[0009] The methods of Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3 have the problem that a large amount of resin components adhere to the recovered glass, making the recovered glass low quality and unusable as a raw material for plate glass or glass wool. In addition, the method of Patent Document 2 has the problem that chemical treatment is required to recover valuable materials contained in the sealing material, resulting in high processing costs. In addition, the method of Patent Document 3 has the problem that a large amount of resin components adhere to the valuable materials recovered from the sealing material, making the glass low quality and resulting in high refining costs.

[0010] In view of the above circumstances, the present invention aims to provide a method for recovering high-quality, valuable constituent materials from a photovoltaic panel with broken glass. [Means for solving the problem]

[0011] The present inventors have conducted extensive research to solve the above problems, and as a result have found that the following invention meets the above object, thereby completing the present invention.

[0012] <1> A method for recovering constituent materials of a solar cell panel, comprising: a heat treatment decomposition process in which a solar cell panel is heat treated to produce a heat-treated product from which resin components have been removed; a sieving process in which the heat-treated product is sieved; an air sorting process in which the under-sieve product from the sieving process is separated into light products and heavy products by air sorting; and an air table sorting process in which the heavy products are separated into glass materials and metal-containing materials by an air table. <2> The solar cell panel includes a portion in which a glass member is broken. <1> The method described. <3> The heat treatment decomposition step is performed by baking at 400° C. or higher. <1> or <2> The method according to <4> The sieving step is a step of sieving using a sieve having an opening of 1 to 100 mm. <1> ~ <3> 2. The method according to claim 1 , <5> The wind sorting step is performed by using a vertical wind sorter. <1> ~ <4> 2. The method according to claim 1 , <6> The air table sorting step is performed by using a single-axis air table. <1> ~ <5> 2. The method according to claim 1 , <7> A system for recovering constituent materials of solar cell panels, comprising: a heat treatment decomposition means for heat-treating a solar cell panel to produce a heat-treated product from which resin components have been removed; a sieving means for sieving the heat-treated product; an air sorting means for air-sorting the under-sieve product sieved by the sieving means into light products and heavy products; and an air table sorting means for using an air table to separate the heavy products into glass components and metal-containing components. Effect of the Invention

[0013] According to the present invention, it is possible to recover high-quality, potentially valuable, constituent materials from photovoltaic panels. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the configuration of a solar cell panel. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of the method of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 11 is a flow diagram showing a part of the flow when crushing is performed between sieving and air sorting. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is another flow diagram of the method of the present invention. [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an outline of a system according to the present invention; [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another example of the outline of the system of the present invention. [Figure 7] 1 is an image showing a state before firing in a firing test of a solar cell panel. [Figure 8] 1 is an image showing the state after firing in a firing test of a solar cell panel. [Figure 9] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of a vertical wind separator. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overview of an air table sorter. [Figure 11] It is an image that requires sifting. [Figure 12]This is a statue related to wind sorting. [Figure 13] This is an image related to air table sorting. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] The following is a detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention, but the following description of the constituent elements is one example (representative example) of the embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the following content as long as the gist of the present invention is not changed. Note that in this specification, when the expression "~" is used, it is used as an expression including the numerical values ​​before and after it.

[0016] [Method of the present invention] The method for recovering constituent materials of a photovoltaic panel of the present invention includes a heat treatment decomposition step of heat treating a photovoltaic panel to produce a heat-treated product from which resin members have been removed, a sieving step of sieving the heat-treated product, an air sorting step of air sorting the undersize product from the sieving step into light products and heavy products, and an air table sorting step of air-sorting the heavy products into glass materials and metal-containing materials. In this application, the method for recovering constituent materials of a photovoltaic panel of the present invention may be simply referred to as the "method of the present invention."

[0017] [System of the present invention] The system for recovering constituent materials of a photovoltaic panel of the present invention includes a heat treatment decomposition device for heat-treating a photovoltaic panel to produce a heat-treated product from which resin members have been removed, a sieving means for sieving the heat-treated product, an air sorting means for air-sorting the under-sieve product screened by the sieving means into light products and heavy products, and an air table sorting means for sorting the heavy products into glass members and metal-containing members with an air table. In this application, the system for recovering constituent materials of a photovoltaic panel of the present invention may be simply referred to as the "system of the present invention."

[0018] The present inventors have studied the use of solar cell panels, which have reached the end of their useful life and will be disposed of in large quantities in the future. They have also studied the reuse of the materials that make up solar cell panels. Solar cell panels contain glass, aluminum, plastic, crystalline silicon, metal members, and the like. Among these, glass is heavy. In order to reuse this glass, it is necessary to separate and recover high-purity glass.

[0019] On the other hand, photovoltaic panels are used outdoors and are collected in various states due to various influences such as weather, natural phenomena, and environmental factors. In particular, they may be collected in a broken state. In order to make it possible to reuse photovoltaic panels in such a variety of states, a separation method was studied. If the glass is broken, it becomes more difficult to separate the various materials. In this separation and collection, it was found that high-purity glass and the like can be separated even from photovoltaic panels in various states by combining wind sorting and air table sorting. The present invention is based on such findings.

[0020] [Solar cell panel] Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the outline of the configuration of a solar cell panel. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the outline of the configuration of a solar cell panel. A solar cell panel has solar cell cells connected with wiring material, filled with a filler around them, and has a glass front cover, back cover, and output terminal protection cover, as well as a frame that supports these.

[0021] The composition ratio of a solar cell panel varies slightly depending on the type of solar cell panel. Typical solar panels that are the subject of the present invention include those called crystalline solar cell panels and silicon solar panels. These mainly include, for example, monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, and HIT. An example of the composition of such a crystalline solar cell panel is, for example, about 62.5% by mass of the front cover (glass), about 15.7% by mass of the frame (aluminum), 17.7% by mass of plastic (EVA, etc.), 3.4% by mass of the cell (crystalline silicon), and about 0.8% by mass of the electrode material (copper wire, solder).

[0022] [Flow of recovering constituent materials from solar panels] 2 is a flow diagram of the method of the present invention. For a photovoltaic panel, first, step S11 is to dismantle the aluminum frame, so that the aluminum frame can be removed first and the inner structure can be processed in the following steps.

[0023] Step S21 is a heat treatment. By the heat treatment, fillers, plastics such as back sheets, etc. are removed. The remaining material is treated as a mixture of glass, cells, and copper wire in step S31. Step S31 is a sieving. The copper wire is separated by sieving, and the undersieve is treated in the following step.

[0024] In step S41, separation is performed by wind separation. In wind separation, light products are removed, and heavy products are processed in the following step. In step S51, the heavy products from wind separation are separated into air table sorting. This air table sorting separates the materials into heavy products such as high purity glass, single-edged products including glass, retained light products such as copper wire-derived materials, and discharged light products such as copper wire-derived materials and cell-derived materials, and allows each of these to be recovered.

[0025] Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a partial modification of the flow diagram shown in Fig. 2. This flow diagram shows a part of the flow when crushing is performed between sieving and air sorting. The undersize material after sieving in step S31 may be crushed in step S32 to make the subsequent sorting easier, and the crushed undersize material may be used for air sorting in step S41.

[0026] Fig. 4 is another flow diagram of the method of the present invention. This flow is a partial modification of the flow shown in Fig. 2. First, in step S12, a heat treatment is performed. By performing the heat treatment, fillers, plastics such as the back sheet, etc. are removed. Next, in step S22, the aluminum frame is dismantled. This removes the aluminum frame. After that, screening and the like are performed in step S31 and thereafter.

[0027] [System for recovering constituent materials from solar panels] Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the outline of the system of the present invention. The recovery system 100 has a dismantling means (pretreatment means) 11, a heat treatment means 31, a sieving means 41, a sieving and recovery section 42, an air sorting means 51, a light product recovery section 52, an air table sorting means 61, a discharged matter recovery section 621, a retained matter recovery section 622, and a glass recovery section 623. The recovery system 100 can also be used to correspond to the recovery method of the flow shown in Fig. 2. In addition, the system may be modified in configuration as appropriate according to each means.

[0028] Fig. 6 is a diagram showing another schematic example of the system of the present invention. The recovery system 101 is a partial modification of the recovery system 100 shown in Fig. 5. The recovery system 100 has a heat treatment means 12 and a dismantling means 32. That is, the heat treatment means and the dismantling means are rearranged. This recovery system 101 can also be used to correspond to the recovery method of the flow shown in Fig. 4. In addition, the system may have a configuration appropriately changed according to each means.

[0029] [Dismantling process] When processing solar cell panels, dismantling can be carried out as appropriate before or after the heat treatment decomposition. Examples of dismantling include dismantling the aluminum frame and removing the back sheet. Note that in the above flow chart and system, an example of dismantling before heat treatment decomposition is shown, but dismantling of the aluminum frame and other dismantling processes may be carried out after the heat treatment.

[0030] [Heat treatment decomposition] In recovering the constituent materials, the solar cell panel is subjected to heat treatment to obtain a heat-treated product from which the resin members have been removed. This heat treatment decomposition can be carried out with reference to JP 2014-108375 A (Patent Document 1). This heat treatment decomposition removes plastics such as fillers and backsheets that are arranged around the solar cell and wiring materials of the solar panel. EVA resin (ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin) is mainly used as this plastic.

[0031] FIG. 7 is an image showing the state before firing in a firing test of a photovoltaic panel. When comparing the presence or absence of cracks in the cover glass, in the stage before firing, both appear to have grown as a whole, and there may be cases where there is no significant difference and it appears that processing can be performed. FIG. 8 is an image showing the state after firing in a firing test of a photovoltaic panel. In FIG. 8, the left side is one without cracks in the cover glass, as in FIG. 7. On the other hand, the right side is one with cracks in the cover glass, as in FIG. 7. In the stage before firing, it is difficult to find a difference. However, when the first firing or the second firing is performed, those without cracks in the cover glass remain integrated, and are relatively easy to collect even as they are. However, those with cracks in the cover glass are in a so-called shattered state, where finely broken parts of the glass are found. In such a state, it may be mixed with other cells and wiring, making it difficult to separate. For this reason, it is preferable that the present invention includes a part in which the glass member is broken.

[0032] The heat treatment decomposition step is preferably performed at 400°C or higher. The heat treatment temperature is more preferably 420°C or higher. The upper limit of the heat treatment temperature may be 600°C or lower, or 580°C or lower, or the like. The firing conditions may be multiple stages. For example, the primary firing is performed in an inert gas atmosphere such as a nitrogen atmosphere. These inert gases may be gases that do not contain oxygen, and may have an oxygen concentration of 2 vol% or lower, or 1 vol% or lower. Thereafter, the secondary firing is performed in a state where the material is in contact with a gas containing oxygen, such as an air atmosphere. The gas containing oxygen may be air (oxygen: about 20.9 vol%), but it may also be adjusted using oxygen gas or the like.

[0033] The firing time for each can be 3 minutes or more, 5 minutes or more, 7 minutes or more, 9 minutes or more, etc., at a set temperature of 400° C. or more. The upper limit of the firing temperature can be 2 hours or less, 1 hour or less, 30 minutes or less, etc. After the thermal decomposition, the remainder after the plastics and the like are removed by vaporization or the like can be used as the thermally treated product by appropriately cooling or the like, and then for subsequent processing or the like.

[0034] [Sieving] The heat-treated product that has been decomposed by heat treatment is separated by sieving. The heat-treated product to be sieved is a mixture of glass, cells, copper wire, etc. By sieving, long objects such as copper wire, large objects such as cells, and objects entangled with these are separated from the fine objects that fall under the sieve.

[0035] The sieving is preferably performed using a sieve with an opening size of 1 to 100 mm. The sieving may be performed in two or three stages. In this case, the sieve is sieved stepwise while changing the opening size from larger to smaller. For example, the sieving process may include a first sieving process in which the sieve is sieved using a sieve with a large opening size such as 5 mm or more, 8 mm or more, 10 mm or more, or 15 mm or more, and a second sieving process in which the sieve is sieved using a sieve with a smaller opening size than the first sieving process, such as 15 mm or less, 10 mm or less, 8 mm or less, 5 mm or less, or 3 mm or less.

[0036] The difference between the mesh size of the sieve in the first sieving step and the mesh size of the sieve in the second sieving step may be 1 mm or more, 3 mm or more, 5 mm or more, etc. The upper limit of the mesh size of the sieve may be 80 mm or less, or 60 mm or less. The shape of the opening of the sieve used for sieving may be circular or polygonal. For example, a sieve sorter as shown in FIG. 11 of the embodiment described later may be used.

[0037] For example, the first sieving step may have a mesh size of about 10 to 50 mm (e.g., 20 mm) to recover copper wires and the like on the sieve, and the second sieving step may have a mesh size of about 1 to 5 mm (e.g., 2 mm) to recover solder balls and the like on the sieve.

[0038] In addition, tempered glass is generally used for the glass of solar panels. Therefore, when glass breaks due to external factors or heat treatment history, it tends to break into small uniform pieces. Therefore, the selection of each process may be performed as it is. In addition, a crushing process for crushing the object to be processed may be performed before or after the sieving process as appropriate. For example, since the undersieve is used for processing after the air sorting, relatively small objects are selectively separated. The sieve has a relatively large mesh size, and the purpose is to remove linear members and objects entangled with them. Therefore, there is a possibility that the undersieve may contain objects of a size that are difficult to separate by air sorting or air table sorting. Therefore, the undersieve after sieving may be used as the object to be processed, and the crushed undersieve may be used for air sorting.

[0039] [Wind selection] The undersieve material from the sieving process is crushed as necessary, and then separated into light and heavy products by air sorting. Air sorting is one of the gravity sorting techniques. Gravity sorting is a sorting technique that separates a target substance from other substances by utilizing the difference in specific gravity when the target substance has a different specific gravity from other substances. As air sorting devices, vertical air sorters, zigzag sorters, horizontal flow sorters, inertia force linear sorters, inertia force curved sorters, etc. can be used.

[0040] For example, Figure 9 is a diagram showing an example of the outline of a vertical wind sorter. Air is made to flow vertically from below into a vertical flow path at the connection with the input vibrating feeder, and light products (light materials) with a relatively low terminal velocity are sent to the top of the flow path, travel around the flow path and are collected from the outlet on the right side in Figure 9. On the other hand, heavy products (heavy materials) with a relatively high terminal velocity are unable to reach the top of the flow path and are collected from the outlet on the left side. This wind sorter is configured using a sirocco fan to circulate air.

[0041] In this way, a vertical air separator is a device that blows an upward flow of air from below into a long vertical column, moving low-density particles with a low settling velocity upward and recovering them as light products, and moving high-density particles with a high settling velocity downward and recovering them as heavy products.

[0042] In wind sorting, the light product is a concentrate of cells from photovoltaic panels, etc. In wind sorting, the heavy product is a concentrate of coarse glass from photovoltaic panels, etc. In glass, which is an isotropic particle derived from cover glass, etc., small particles tend to be distributed into the light product. On the other hand, cells are flat particles, which are thought to be more susceptible to airflow over a wide area, and larger particles tend to be distributed into the light product. For this reason, it is easier to separate the large particles into the desired light and heavy products, so there is little need to crush them excessively before wind sorting.

[0043] The wind sorting process can be carried out, for example, at a wind speed of 4 to 15 m / s and an air volume of 20 to 70 L / min. As an apparatus suitable for such wind sorting, for example, a wind sorter L750SRM type manufactured by Harada Corporation can be used.

[0044] [Airtable Selection] The heavy products from the wind separation are separated into glass materials and metal-containing materials by air table sorting. Figure 10 is a diagram showing the outline of the air table sorter. The air table sorter in Figure 10 is a single-axis air table sorter.

[0045] This air table sorter vibrates a deck that is slightly angled from the horizontal, and also blows air vertically onto the deck from below. As a result, high-density particles are not affected much by the wind and move downward in the powder bed, concentrating near the peaks on the deck surface. While the peaks prevent them from moving downward, the deck vibrations cause them to move upward and are collected as heavy products. On the other hand, low-density particles are affected by the wind and move upward in the powder bed, then move downward along the slope of the deck and are collected as light products.

[0046] In air table sorting, materials can be classified into multiple categories, such as those discharged from the air table outlet and those that remain on the air table. Taking the air table in Figure 10 as an example, light products, mainly copper wires and cells, are discharged from the bottom of the deck. Heavy products, mainly glass, are discharged from the top of the deck. Materials that are difficult to move to either side while the air table is in operation may be collected as retained material that remains on the deck of the air table. Of these retained materials, light products such as copper wires are separated above the powder layer.

[0047] As such an air table, for example, the air table SRM 296P-72N manufactured by Harada Corporation can be used.

[0048] In order to separate light and heavy products after the air table with higher accuracy, further sorting may be performed using wind sorting, air table sorting, sieving, or the like.

[0049] [collect] Thus, the present invention relates to the recovery of constituent materials of photovoltaic cell panels. The constituent materials to be recovered can be any of those separated in each process. Also, taking into consideration the method of use after each recovery, those separated in different processes or means can be mixed and used. In short, copper wires and the like can be recovered by sieving. Cells and the like can be recovered from light products of wind sorting. Cells and the like can be recovered from light products of air table sorting. Glass can be recovered from heavy products of air table sorting.

[0050] As a guideline for recovery rates, based on the weight of the material after heat treatment, sieve sorting will recover and separate about 3 to 5% by mass of the material that remains on the sieve, air sorting will recover about 5 to 10% by mass of light products, air table sorting will recover about 1 to 5% by mass of light products, and air table sorting will recover about 80 to 90% by mass of heavy products.

[0051] The collected items are processed according to their respective components. Some of the collected items contain valuable materials, so they can be reused. Items that are difficult to reuse can be disposed of in a reduced form.

[0052] The recovery method and recovery system of the present invention are dry and can separate and recover without using water, etc. Therefore, since there is no need to perform drying after separation, the energy efficiency of the treatment is excellent. In addition, glass, which accounts for a large proportion of the mass of a solar cell panel, can be recovered with high purity and a quality that allows it to be reused. Therefore, even in a society where sustainable circulation is required, the disposal of solar cell panels that utilize natural energy can contribute to treatment with reduced environmental impact. EXAMPLES

[0053] The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples. However, the present invention is not limited to the following examples unless the gist of the present invention is changed.

[0054] The following tests were conducted for the processing of solar cell panels. The types of panels to be processed were polycrystalline silicon and single crystalline silicon. Before carrying out the heat treatment, the frames were disassembled and the back covers were removed.

[0055] [Heat treatment process] The photovoltaic panels were heated using a furnace described in the "FY2017 3R System Construction Support Project for the Dissemination of Low Carbon Products: Report on Early Commercialization of Carbon Fiber and Solar Cell Recycling through Equipment Sharing" (also see JP 2014-108375 A) to decompose organic matter such as EVA.

[0056] The primary firing was carried out in a nitrogen atmosphere (oxygen concentration 1% or less) at a firing speed of 8 m / hr (residence time in the furnace: 10 minutes) and a firing temperature of 500°C. The secondary firing was carried out in air (oxygen concentration 20.9%) at a firing speed of 12 m / hr (residence time in the furnace 5 minutes) and a firing temperature of 500°C. Through these first and second firings, organic matter such as EVA was decomposed, and glass, copper wire, and cell residues were obtained. These residues were used for further processing. In particular, in the case of the cover glass that was cracked, the cover glass was crushed after firing, and each component of the residue was mixed.

[0057] [Sieving] The residue after the heat treatment was sieved using a sieving sorter. A sieving sorter with circular holes of φ50 mm was used for sieving. Figure 11 shows images of this sieving process. The image in the upper left of Figure 11 shows the appearance of the sieving part of the sorting machine. The image in the upper right of Figure 11 is the mixture before sieving, i.e., the residue after firing. The image in the lower left of Figure 11 shows the material recovered above the sieve after sieving with the sieving sorter. The image in the lower right of Figure 11 shows the material recovered below the sieve after sieving.

[0058] Figure 12 shows the image of wind sorting. Wind sorting was performed using a wind sorter L750SRM manufactured by Harada Corporation. When examining the operation of this wind sorter, the wind speed and volume for each frequency were as follows.

[0059] [Table 1]

[0060] Based on the wind speed and volume, a frequency of 40 Hz provides high efficiency in recovering cells as light products, so in this embodiment, a frequency of around 40 Hz was adopted as the main condition. The image in the upper left of Figure 12 shows the exterior of the wind separator. The image in the upper right of Figure 12 shows the mixture that was the subject of wind separation. The image in the lower left of Figure 12 shows the light products that were recovered. The image in the lower right of Figure 12 shows the heavy products that were recovered.

[0061] For example, when wind sorting was performed at a frequency of 40 Hz, a light product was obtained with a cell quality of 82.5 mass%, a cell recovery rate of 99.5 mass%, and a separation efficiency of 82.0 mass% relative to other cell components.

[0062] Figure 13 shows images related to air table sorting. The air table used was a Harada Sangyo SRM 296P-72N air table. The image in the upper left of Figure 13 shows the appearance of the air table. The image in the upper right of Figure 13 shows the mixture used in the air table sorting. The image in the lower left of Figure 13 shows the light product recovered. This light product is the product that remained on the deck and was discharged from below the deck. The image in the upper right of Figure 13 shows the heavy product recovered.

[0063] The air table sorter sets the deck vibration frequency and air volume separately. The deck vibration frequency is, for example, 425 rpm at 57 Hz. The air volume is, for example, 40 m at 50 Hz. 3 The mesh on the deck surface had a mesh size of 15 mm, a peak height of 11.5 mm, a peak pitch of 15 mm, a deck angle of 1°, and a discharge outlet height of 10 mm.

[0064] In this example, about 6670 kg of the mixture after heat treatment was separated. As a result of testing, 126 kg (2%) of the mixture was sieved, and 6546 kg (98%) of the mixture was sieved. The mixture that was sieved was 33% glass, 64% copper wire, and 3% cells. From this, 55% copper and 8539 mg / kg silver were obtained. The mixture that was sieved was subjected to wind separation.

[0065] Next, the light product of air sorting was 469 kg (7%) and the heavy product was 6049 kg (91%). The light product was 2% copper wire and 98% cells. From this, 2% copper and 5683 g / kg silver were obtained. The heavy product was subjected to air table sorting.

[0066] Air table sorting then yielded 102 kg (2%) of light products and 5947 kg (89%) of heavy products. The light products were 60% glass, 17% copper wire, and 23% cells. From this, 15% of the light products and 3291 mg / kg of silver were obtained. The heavy products were 99.999% glass, 0.001% copper wire, and 0.0002% cells. The heavy products were particularly high in glass purity and could be used for glass recycling. [Industrial Applicability]

[0067] INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be utilized for recycling solar cell panels and is industrially useful. [Explanation of symbols]

[0068] 100, 101 Recovery system 11, 32 Dismantling methods 12, 31 Heat treatment means 41 Screening means 42 Sieve recovery section 51 Wind sorting methods 52 Light Product Recovery Department 61 Air Table Selection Method 621 Waste Collection Department 622 Retention Collection Department 623 Glass Recycling Department

Claims

1. a heat treatment decomposition process for heat treating the solar cell panel to obtain a heat treated product from which a resin member has been removed; a sieving step of sieving the heat-treated product; A wind sorting process in which the undersize product obtained in the sieving process is sorted into light products and heavy products by wind sorting; and an air table sorting step of sorting the heavy products into glass materials and metal-containing materials using an air table.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photovoltaic panel includes a broken glass member.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the heat treatment decomposition step comprises baking at 400° C. or higher.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sieving step is performed by sieving with a sieve having an opening of 1 to 100 mm.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the air sorting step is performed using a vertical air sorter.

6. A heat treatment decomposition means for heat treating the solar cell panel to obtain a heat treated product from which a resin member has been removed; A sieving means for sieving the heat-treated product; a wind sorting means for sorting the undersize product sieved by the sieving means into light products and heavy products by wind sorting; A system for recovering constituent materials of a solar cell panel, comprising: an air table sorting means for sorting the heavy products into glass components and metal-containing components using an air table.

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