Mechanical Aspects
Our research is being conducted on two primary targets, a strip of EVA film and a cut out portion of a solar panel. The EVA film will provide us with a baseline on the potential that our solvents may have on breaking down the EVA layer. If a solvent shows positive results on the film, we can then submerge a piece of panel in order to see if the solvent can maintain the results and its effects on the other materials found within a panel.
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Chemical Treatment
Countless researchers have sought chemicals that have the ability to quickly and efficiently break down the EVA layers within solar panels, such as toluene. However, our team seeks for a greener alternative for the current toxic solvents.
To test the efficacy of our selected solvents, we submerge the EVA strips and panel fragments within our solvents and observe their effects on the strips and the percent weight loss of the panel fragments. We used toluene and water as our controls to compare the effectiveness of our selected solvents. From our current results, we have found that 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran has had the greatest percent weight loss of about 80.69%, even surpassing the weight loss of toluene, which is the commonly used solvent within literature. |
GasificationThe goal of gasification is to convert most of the combustible solids into combustible gasses (CO, H2, CH4). In terms of sustainability, gasification of waste can lead to reduced air pollutants. Gasification does not entail enough oxygen for combustion or a complete burning which produces smoke and particles damaging the environment. Research of the gasification of solar panels has been extremely minimal, so we hope to use this process to see what materials we can recover from this process as well as explore the environmental effects of this process on solar panels.
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