Development of High-Purity Glass Recovery Technology from End-of-Life Solar Panels for Applying to Materials for Glass Wool Productions

This study aims to develop a material recycling process for end-of-life solar panels, focusing on the recovery of high-purity glass and its application in glass wool production.Solar panels contain more than 60% glass by weight, and their disposal is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades.Because of this, the researchers developed a thermal decomposition and multi-stage sorting process to separate glass, copper wires, and silicon cells.The process successfully recovered glass cullet with a purity of 99.999%, which accounted for 86% of the panel weight after treatment.Copper and silver were also recovered at concentrations of 55% and 8539 mg/kg, respectively, which shows potential for reuse as valuable materials.The recovered glass cullet was used at 100% to produce glass wool prototypes.Performance evaluation showed that the thermal conductivity of the prototype was 0.040 W/m•K, which is comparable to conventional products made from window glass (0.041 W/m•K).Environmental safety was confirmed through leaching tests, with all measured values well below regulatory limits.These results show the feasibility of converting waste solar panel glass into high-value insulation materials.The proposed system offers a practical solution for resource circulation and landfill reduction, which contributes to sustainable waste management and environmental protection.