Photovoltaic waste is projected to reach up to 78 million tons across globally dispersed locations through 2050. Current recycling infrastructure is inadequate to process these waste volumes responsibly. This necessitates commercializing novel, environmentally advantageous photovoltaic recycling technologies that improve upon incumbent industrial operations. CdTe photovoltaic recycling is a promising candidate for improvements as 25,000 tons of spent modules are recycled worldwide annually. This paper evaluates the operational performance and compares six novel technologies, the incumbent technology used in industry and one technology which extends the incumbent process across ten environmental impact categories. The tradeoff between incurring a transportation burden (ship or road) to recycle in a large‐scale centralized facility with a higher operational efficiency and avoiding transportation by recycling in a small‐scale decentralized facility with a lower operational efficiency is evaluated. Thermal delamination to eliminate the ethylene vinyl acetate and separate the photovoltaic glass panels is preferable to the incumbent mechanical process across nine environmental impact categories and decreases the climate‐change impact of CdTe photovoltaic recycling by 23%. Bath and probe sonication are ineffective for delamination, and the use of organic solvents is more environmentally burdensome than the incumbent mechanical process. Centralized recycling with shipping is environmentally preferable than with road‐based transportation. For every 100‐km increase in road transportation from the decentralized to the centralized facility, the inventory requirement in the centralized facility should be 6% lower than the decentralized facility for centralized recycling to have a lower climate‐change impact than decentralized recycling. The corresponding value for shipping is 0.4%.

中文翻译：

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通过新技术和设施选址策略改善CdTe光伏回收的环境

预计到2050年，光伏废料将在全球分散的地区达到7800万吨。目前的回收基础设施不足以负责任地处理这些废料。这就需要对新颖的，有利于环境的光伏回收技术进行商业化，以改善现有的工业运营。CdTe光伏回收是改进的有希望的候选者，因为每年全球回收25,000吨废模块。本文对运营绩效进行了评估，并比较了六种新技术，工业上使用的现有技术和一项将现有过程扩展到十个环境影响类别的技术。权衡了在运营效率较高的大型集中式设施中进行循环回收的运输负担（船舶或道路）与在运营效率较低的小型分散式设施中进行回收避免运输之间的权衡。在9个环境影响类别中，采用热分层技术消除乙烯乙酸乙烯酯并分离光伏玻璃面板比现有的机械工艺更可取，并且可将CdTe光伏循环利用对气候变化的影响降低23％。浴和探头超声处理不能有效地分层，并且与现有的机械过程相比，使用有机溶剂对环境的负担更大。在运输方面，集中式回收在环境方面比公路运输更为可取。从分散式中心到集中式机构的道路运输量每增加100 km，集中式机构中的库存需求应比分散式机构的集中式回收机构低6％，这样对气候变化的影响要小于分散式回收。相应的运输价值为0.4％。