Obtaining cullet from thin film solar modules

A method of obtaining cullet from a solar module unit, the method comprising:

• providing a solar module unit that includes a photovoltaic circuit that is encapsulated by an adhesive layer and further includes a glass substrate, the solar module having a detectable tagging material applied onto an exposed outer surface of the glass substrate over one or more electrically conductive contact strips located beneath and visible through the glass substrate on which the detectable tagging material is applied;
• crushing the solar module unit into assorted module pieces;
• sorting the assorted module pieces by detecting module pieces that include the detectable tagging material and then separating the assorted module pieces into a collection of accepted module pieces and a collection of rejected module pieces, the collection of accepted module pieces having module pieces determined not to include the detectable tagging material and the collection of rejected module pieces having module pieces determined to include the detectable tagging material;
• and
• removing adhered portions of the photovoltaic circuit and adhered portions of the adhesive layer from the collection of accepted module pieces to isolate and obtain recycled glass from the collection of accepted module pieces.

A method of obtaining cullet from a thin film solar module unit, the method comprising:

• providing a thin film solar module unit that includes a photovoltaic circuit that is encapsulated by an adhesive layer and sandwiched between a front glass substrate and a back glass substrate, the photovoltaic circuit comprising a semiconductor layer of cadmium sulfide paired with a semiconductor layer of cadmium telluride, the thin film solar module further having a detectable tagging material applied onto an exposed outer surface of the front or back glass substrate over one or more electrically conductive contact strips located beneath and visible through the front or back glass substrate on which the detectable tagging material is applied;
• crushing the thin film solar module unit into assorted module pieces;
• sorting the assorted module pieces by detecting module pieces that include the detectable tagging material and then separating the assorted module pieces into a collection of accepted module pieces and a collection of rejected module pieces, the collection of accepted module pieces having module pieces determined not to include the detectable tagging material and the collection of rejected module pieces having module pieces determined to include the detectable tagging material;
• leaching the accepted module pieces in a leaching solution to extract semiconductor materials into a leachant and detach adhered portions of the photovoltaic circuit and adhered portions of the adhesive layer from the collection of accepted module pieces to thereby isolate and obtain recycled glass from the collection of accepted module pieces;
• and
• reclaiming the semiconductor materials from the leachant.