ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,686,154, issued on July 21, was assigned to University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, Ky.).
"Method for recycling end-of-life solar panels" was invented by John G. Groppo (Nicholasville, Ky.), Zebulon Hart (Owingsville, Ky.) and Lucas Bertucci (Louisville, Ky.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of recycling a solar panel includes steps of removing a frame from the solar panel, delaminating a glass cover, silicon wafers and a plastic backing of the solar panel using a green solvent adapted to weaken, rather than dissolve, an adhesive used in lamination of the solar panel thereby generating a delaminated material stream, ...