Knowledge Agora



Similar Articles

Title Eco-design for dye solar cells: From hazardous waste to profitable recovery
ID_Doc 26367
Authors Miettunen, K; Santasalo-Aarnio, A
Title Eco-design for dye solar cells: From hazardous waste to profitable recovery
Year 2021
Published
Abstract Recycling is rarely considered in the field of dye solar cells. However, recycling should be a critical part of holistic eco-design, which considers the efficiency, lifetime, return of energy investment, safety, and availability of materials. The novelty and focus of this work is recycling, and this is the first contribution systematically analyzing how different material choices and their combinations affect the recycling of dye solar cells. By understanding the recycling processes and how the recycling of materials is interlinked in a multicomponent system, it is possible to eco-design systems and guide future research toward selecting materials that support sustainability and enable economically motivated recycling. Economic incentive is the biggest factor determining whether or not recycling will take place. With eco-design, it is possible to avoid future problems, such as trapping rare and expensive critical metals in waste from which they are difficult or even impossible to recover. In fact, the conventional dye solar cells create harmful waste with no economically profitable way of recycling. Interestingly, many of the alternative materials that enable recycling have not been originally designed for that purpose, and it is rarely obvious how the combination of different materials affects recycling. For instance, using thin flexible substrates, which have been developed for roll-to-roll manufacturing, supports the retrieval of Ag, and using high performance Co- or Cu-based electrolytes instead of iodine electrolyte eliminates toxic gas problems in pyrometallurgical recycling processes.
PDF https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128743

Similar Articles

ID Score Article
21673 Schoden, F; Dotter, M; Knefelkamp, D; Blachowicz, T; Hellkamp, ES Review of State of the Art Recycling Methods in the Context of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells(2021)Energies, 14.0, 13
10095 Schoden, F; Schnatmann, AK; Blachowicz, T; Manz-Schumacher, H; Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, E Circular Design Principles Applied on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells(2022)Sustainability, 14.0, 22
20714 Schoden, F; Detzmeier, J; Schnatmann, AK; Blachowicz, T; Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, E Investigating the Remanufacturing Potential of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells(2022)Sustainability, 14, 9
22393 Schoden, F; Schnatmann, AK; Davies, E; Diederich, D; Storck, JL; Knefelkamp, D; Blachowicz, T; Schwenzfeier-Hellkamp, E Investigating the Recycling Potential of Glass Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells-Melting Experiment(2021)Materials, 14.0, 21
13479 Gressler, S; Part, F; Scherhaufer, S; Obersteiner, G; Huber-Humer, M Advanced materials for emerging photovoltaic systems - Environmental hotspots in the production and end-of-life phase of organic, dye-sensitized, perovskite, and quantum dots solar cells(2022)
12322 Ndalloka, ZN; Nair, HV; Alpert, S; Schmid, C Solar photovoltaic recycling strategies(2024)
Scroll