Japanese glass, chemicals, and materials manufacturer AGC said it will collaborate with solar PV equipment manufacturer NPC Incorporated to promote the recycling of solar panel cover glass and its use as part of the raw material used in the production of architectural flat glass.
As part of establishing the recycling scheme, AGC said it had provided advice on equipment specifications and supported the development of a logistics network to facilitate efficient cullet collection. It confirmed that NPC’s patented solar panel disassembly equipment for separating the solar cells and removing the residual ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) material without breaking the glass meets the stringent AGC quality standards.
“This enables recyclers to adopt NPC’s equipment and sell high-quality recycled glass to AGC,” the company said.
It further noted that, in September, it had used 20 tons of cullet processed by this method as part of the raw materials to manufacture figured glass at its Yokohama Technical Center.
Other methods, such as pyrolysis and high-pressure water jet technologies, were also mentioned as suitable for this type of recycling of solar panel cover glass.
In a separate release, NPC said that it aims to “expand the sales of its solar panel recycling machine and promote the realization of solar panel recycling.”
The collaboration between the two companies is for Japan and overseas, according to the AGC announcement.
The glass recycling initiative is part of a project commissioned by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
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