Macquarie licenses precision silver restoration tech for photo voltaic panel recycling
by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 15, 2025
Macquarie College has licensed a breakthrough silver extraction methodology to ASX-listed Lithium Universe underneath an unique world deal value greater than A$500,000 over 20 years, aiming to reshape how Australia recycles photo voltaic panels by recovering silver whereas preserving intact glass sheets and silicon wafers.
Co-leads Dr Binesh Puthen Veettil and Dr David Payne from Macquarie College’s College of Engineering maintain a provisional patent on the precision strategy, which enhances the group’s patented microwave-powered solar-panel delamination know-how additionally licensed by Lithium Universe underneath the industrial partnership.
“We will selectively take away silver with out touching different metals like aluminium, and with out impacting the silicon cells and different elements,” Dr Veettil says. “Our resolution is sort of a stress washer for eradicating silver.”
The Jet Electrochemical Silver Extraction (JESE) course of directs a skinny stream of weak acid onto silver traces in a panel, dissolving the metallic in seconds whereas leaving the whole lot else untouched. “The silicon wafer stays intact and uncontaminated, making it appropriate for reuse in semiconductor manufacturing,” Dr Veettil says.
Conventional recycling grinds whole panels and makes use of harsh chemical substances, destroying helpful elements. The Macquarie methodology preserves elements and extracts pure silver with better than 77 p.c present effectivity and minimal waste, and it pairs with microwave delamination to separate glass, silicon, and different supplies with out grinding or furnaces.
The waste problem is mounting: world photo voltaic panel waste is forecast at 60-78 million tonnes by 2050, with Australia alone reaching a million tonnes by 2035. Every panel incorporates about 20 grams of silver value A$36 (US$23), but solely 15 p.c of used panels are at present recycled.
Market pressures add urgency. Silver demand is rising by 7 p.c yearly and is projected to succeed in round 20 million kg in 2025. A 3.3 million kg deficit is anticipated this 12 months, and costs have greater than doubled from just below US$600 per kg in 2018 to US$1250 per kg right now.
Lithium Universe will full analysis and growth earlier than industrial deployment is in place by 2032, paying annual licensing charges and a gross sales royalty. “We now have constructed a powerful, solutions-focused partnership combining Macquarie’s world-class analysis with our industrial imaginative and prescient,” says Mr Tan. “Collectively, we’re delivering a breakthrough recycling resolution that recovers high-purity silver whereas preserving wafer integrity,” he provides.
The group says the strategy may increase to recuperate different metals corresponding to gallium, indium, and copper from end-of-life panels. “This collaboration reveals the impression college analysis can have when paired with business imaginative and prescient,” says Professor Sam Muller, Govt Dean of the College of Science and Engineering. “As Australia strikes towards its goal of 82 per cent renewable vitality by 2030, we’re not simply fixing the photo voltaic waste drawback – we’re creating a brand new useful resource stream to satisfy worldwide demand.”
A video overview of the know-how is on the market here.
Associated Hyperlinks
Trending Merchandise
