Project videos
Silicon : A strategic and critical raw material
A lot of challenges surround Silicon, a material both strategic and critical, at the center of the ICARUS project. On one hand, this material is responsible for the designation “Silicon Age” of the 20th Century due to its overwhelming use in computer technologies as the material of choice for transistors. On the other hand, the European Commission has added it to the list of critical raw materials in 2020.
Silicon-Kerf recovery & Mono crystalline ingot growth
One of the steps of the manufacturing process of solar silicon wafers consists in shaping silicon ingots, into bricks and into wafers. Wafer slicing leads to a loss of 35% in mass and a contamination of the Silicon-Kerf. ICARUS aims to reduce the impurities by improving the sawing process and testing soft chemical and thermal treatments.
Find out more information about the recovery process of the Silicon-Kerf by CEA. The video also presents how the purified silicon-kerf could be used as feedstock material for monocrystalline ingot growth.
M30 General Assembly in Cyprus: Presentation of UCY and project’ advancements
On 6 and 7 December 2023, ICARUS’ partners joined for the M30 meeting of the project in Nicosia. Theodora Kyratsi (University of Cyprus) and Birgit Ryningen (SINTEF) talk about the project’s progress, in particular regarding WP6 – High End Applications, in this video filmed at the University of Cyprus.
ICARUS: processing and refining of secondary raw materials from silicon photovoltaic manufacturing
ICARUS aims to demonstrate modular processing solutions at industrial scale to retrieve 95% of high-value raw materials from silicon ingot and wafer manufacturing. ICARUS will be a driver for a new start of the european PV industry.
ICARUS waste inventory: silicon
During the production of solar panels large resource flows are generated. Currently some largely end up as waste. Here the challenge in re-use is connected to the material properties: the composition, purity and morphology will determine how the current waste should be processed in order to realize the value potential. SINTEF has therefore performed a waste inventory for three important material flows occurring from silicon-ingot and wafer manufacturing in the PV production value chain: silicon kerf from sawing of wafers, silica from crucibles used in crystal pulling and graphite from crystal growth furnaces. Here silicon is presented.
ICARUS – First pilot campaign: Production of Silicon metal utilising waste from the PV industry
Northern Silicon AS and SINTEF have joined forces and successfully conducted a first pilot campaign, during which for the first time we produced silicon metal utilising waste from the PV industry. In this campaign, virgin high purity quartz raw material is replaced by pot scrap, a quartz crucible waste product incurring in silicon ingot manufacturing.
ICARUS – Waste Assessment
Waste assessment aims to collect information about other processes outputs and their properties beside the product. In the end, this assessment allows to know if we have a waste or a byproduct and if it is hazardous or not. The results of the waste assessment may therefore influence the waste generating process.
Project results
In this section, the public deliverables and other documents related to the project will be available:
Public initial waste inventory SINTEF
Public intermediate waste inventory SINTEF
Public final waste inventory SINTEF
Technological advances on the treatment of Si-kerf, graphite, and silica waste streams from the PV industry RESITEC
Semi-industrial pilot scale Si-production SINTEF
Properties of silicides based on Si-kerf UCY
Pilot-scale trials for multi-silicon ingot growth CEA
Pilot-scale trials for mono-silicon ingot growth SINTEF
Classification of waste streams BIFA
Final environmental and techno-economic assessment BIFA
Workshop 1 BIFA
Workshop 2 BIFA
Value chain modelling SINTEF
Communication plan AYMING
Best practices on communication AYMING
Final project brochure BENKEI
Project video BENKEI
Publications to the scientific domain SINTEF
White paper for policy makers SINTEF
Project website and social media AYMING
Project papers
The different scientific papers and documentation related to the project will also be accessible on our Zenodo community.