Granted Projects
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Funded 2024
NSF RAISE: CET: Understanding chemical and mechanical interactions and their enviro-economic implications in the recovery, reuse, and recycling of halide perovskite solar cells
The focus of this RAISE project is to understand fundamental aspects of interfaces that will enable the development perovskite solar cells that can be recycled at the lowest economic and environmental cost. Chemical and mechanical interfacial interactions will drive the enviro-economic analysis to make an interdisciplinary RAISE program. The knowledge imparted from studying these interfaces can be used to guide the recycling process of these materials. The team will converge to develop the recycling of the devices with different materials and architectures, guided by fundamental questions and hypotheses. These questions include: 1) What are the chemical reactions that occur at interfaces, and can we prevent or reverse them? 2) How can we selectively remove different layers through solvent engineering? 3) How does interfacial chemistry affect layer delamination, and can we control them for improvements in recyclability? 4) What are the processing conditions (including chemical and mechanical) that will enable the least environmental impact and lowest cost? The team comprises experts in thin film fabrication, characterization, device design, fabrication, testing, mechanical analysis, and the assessment of the environmental and economic impact of solar cells. The team will investigate the recyclability and environmental consequences of different cell layers. Critical challenges in this field include: (i) Understanding the chemical and mechanical behaviors at interfaces in perovskite solar cells during device testing under electrical bias. (ii) Identifying environmentally friendly materials for recycling. (iii) Providing fundamental science training to students, preparing them for careers in the solar cell industry. This project will enable materials design with a focus on sustainability.
Total Awarded Amount: $ 1,000,000 (Co-PI Celik's team portion is $ 310,00)
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Funded: 2022
NSF CAREER: CAS-Climate: Sustainable Design Principles for Emerging Photovoltaics
The overarching goal of this project is to identify the most environmentally sustainable and economically feasible schemes to prepare emerging photovoltaic (EPV) technologies for the energy market as truly sustainable solar technology. This goal will be pursued by synergistically integrating research and education-associated tasks within three objectives: (1) identifying sustainable design principles for EPVs based on circular end-of-life (EoL) options and advancing sustainability education with EoL-related concepts; (2) analyzing the use and EoL phase-related environmental impacts and cost dimension of EPVs and advancing solar energy education in higher education in South Dakota, and; (3) assessing enviro-economic models for novel application of EPVs, creating decision support tools (EPV-Life tool), and disseminating the research results by offering workshops. Considering that EPVs can create an important market for the solar energy industry, enviro-economic models of EPVs and their novel applications are essential to inform PV stakeholders regarding the pathways for environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable solar energy. As a result, the societal benefits of this project include methods for offsetting greenhouse gases and facilitating an effective education mechanism for EPVs technology.
Total Awarded Amount: $ 424,851.00 (Intended: 533,387.00)
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Funded: 2021
NSF ERI: CAS- Climate: Design for Recyclability: Perovskite Solar Technology for Sustainable Energy Future
The project has two principal foci. First, PSM architecture will be designed with recyclability principles. The focal point of DfR is producing valuable products from recycling. This opportunity was missed for established PV technologies- e.g., for silicon PV, the typical outputs of the recycling process are low in economic value. Many PV recyclers do not want to accept waste PV or leave the EoLM cost to the end- users. However, it may be possible to open the glass-glass sandwich structures of PSM modules without crashing glass content. As a result, PV recyclers could generate valuable products (coated float glass, flat glass, Au or Ag chunks) at the EoL, producing viable products that can be remanufactured and reused or repurposed in PV and other industries. Second, the PI will assess potential processes involved in EoLM using sustainability-based tradeoff analyses. This approach resides at the crossroads of the abatement cost concept from environmental economics and damage cost concept from sustainability engineering. The PI aims to apply these concepts to construct an EoLM scenario that maximizes net social benefits (including private cost and benefits and abatement costs). Considering that PSMs are an important niche market for the solar energy industry, it is appropriate to formulate enviro-economic models to assess the EoL phase of PSMs and inform PV stakeholders regarding the pathways for environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable solar energy. This project seeks to lead to environmentally sustainable and economically viable perovskite solar technology even in the EoL phase.
Total Awarded Amount: $237,860.00 (Intended: 200,000)
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Funded: 2021
DOE EERE : Remanufacturable "Net-Zero Pb" Perovskite Solar Modules
Our multi-disciplinary team with complementary expertise in PV fabrication, recycling, and sustainability aims to develop the design for recyclability (DfR) principles to fabricate remanufacturable, net-zero Pb perovskite solar modules (PSMs). Net-zero Pb approach will ensure to keep the majority of toxic Pb content (>80% by mass) of PSMs in a closed-loop and enhances circularity of energy infrastructure relying upon emerging photovoltaics. In addition, we will advance economically feasible prototype recycling processes to open the glass-glass sandwich structures of PSMs without crashing glass content. Our method has a great potential to transform our field's understanding regarding sustainable thin-film PV recycling.
Total Awarded Amount: $191,500,00
Funded: 2019
Funded: 2019
SESYNC: Energy-Water Nexus of Solar Industry
SESYNC: Energy-Water Nexus of Solar Industry
Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is becoming more affordable, accessible, and prevalent in the United States (US) than ever before. While the PV boom continues, it is now critical to plan for the end-of-life (EoL) of current and future PV modules. With an opportunity to recover $2 billion worth materials, it will be important to understand the environmental and societal impacts of different EoL managements for the PV industry. The goal of this synthesis working group is to outline the data and tools for creating the highest societal benefits from PV industry by analyzing environmental and economic trade-offs through different life cycle paths of remanufacturing, recycling, and landfilling EoL management. To achieve this goal, we will overcome a major shortfall - the lack of environmental data on energy-water nexus of solar industry. Unavailability of such data is due to lack of regulations concerning EoL management of PV because this emerging technology and the associated regulations have not been widely introduced to the scientific and production community yet. This project will construct the first PV energy-water database that consists of hazardous and toxic emissions to water bodies by creating energy-water networks for remanufacturing/recycling and landfilling scenarios. We will also analyze the societal and economic trade-offs of different remanufacturing/recycling and landfilling scenarios to inform practitioners and decision-makers regarding socio-economic impacts of different EoL management of PVs. Both the working framework and protocols established through this synthesis working group is expected to be widely applied within the scientific community for PV and other similar (electronic waste) systems.
Total Awarded Amount: ~$80,000.00 (Travel Grant)
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