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KU researchers and collaborators developing new technologies for recycling solar panels
LAWRENCE — As solar panels reach the end of their working lives, many end up in landfills. University of Kansas scientists are poised to avert this looming waste crisis with help from a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. In collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory and First Solar Inc., researchers at KU’s Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis are developing a low-cost method to separate and reuse components from used solar panels for recycling.
Project awarded $250K to increase inclusion in research for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
LAWRENCE — A team at the University of Kansas has been approved for a $250,000 funding award by the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The project will begin by connecting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their family members with clinicians, policymakers, researchers and other interested groups in a new network titled Kansas Health and Research Partnership.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Mindie Paget, Office of Research, 785-864-0013, [email protected], @ResearchAtKU
KU researchers and collaborators developing new technologies for recycling solar panels
LAWRENCE — Solar power is growing at an astonishing rate, providing almost 4% of the world’s electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. But as solar panels reach the end of their working lives, many end up in landfills.
University of Kansas scientists are poised to avert this looming waste crisis with help from a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office. In collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory and First Solar Inc., researchers at KU’s Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis are developing a low-cost method to separate and reuse components from used solar panels for recycling.
“Our goal is to demonstrate a recycling technology that can be easily scaled up and is also green,” said Bala Subramaniam, Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering and director of the CEBC. “Efficient recycling of solar panels will be essential as the industry grows, to ensure the availability of critical materials, minimize waste and limit costs. Solving this problem now is essential to avoid the type and scale of pollution that we currently face with waste plastics. This project is an example of the forward-thinking research that the KU CEBC and its collaborators undertake to promote the sustainability of our planet.”
Solar panels are constructed from several layers of materials, including glass, adhesives, metals and semiconductors. Recovering rare and costly metals from end-of-life panels is expensive, slow, destructive and requires harsh chemical conditions. According to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, less than 10% of the country’s decommissioned panels are recycled.
The research team will tackle this problem by developing a new technology to easily separate the layers, then use ozone to recover the valuable metals. They will design the process under laboratory conditions, then employ economic and environmental modeling to scale the solution for industry use.
The resulting process is expected to be faster, cleaner and more cost-effective — potentially solving an industrywide recycling challenge.
“First Solar has long been committed to sustainability, with a particular emphasis on recycling that dates back over 15 years, when we launched the industry’s first commercial recycling program. Partnerships with institutions such as the University of Kansas are invaluable as we continue to evolve our recycling technology to both scale recycling facilities and optimize recovery rates,” said Pat Buehler, chief product officer at First Solar, KU’s industry research partner on this grant.
KU was selected as a part of the SETO Fiscal Year 2022 Photovoltaics Research & Development (PVRD) funding program, an effort to reduce costs and supply chain vulnerabilities, further develop durable and recyclable solar technologies, and advance more environmentally friendly PV technologies toward commercialization.
The Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis is a multi-departmental research center focused on protecting the planet, promoting prosperity and enriching scholarship through diversity.
This project highlights KU’s strength in research focused on earth, energy & environment, which is one of the university’s five strategic research themes. Research in this area increases understanding of the various dimensions and impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, developing new technologies and mitigation strategies with an ultimate goal of sustaining the life of the planet and its inhabitants.
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Contact: Christina Knott, Life Span Institute, [email protected], @kulifespan
Project awarded $250K to increase inclusion in research for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
LAWRENCE — A team at the University of Kansas has been approved for a $250,000 funding award by the Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Awards program, an initiative of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. The funds will support a project designed to expand inclusion in research for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
Led by researcher Karrie Shogren, director of the KU Life Span Institute’s Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities (KUCDD), the project aims to enable opportunities for people with IDD to engage in research that affects them.
“I have been privileged to partner with people with disabilities to develop interventions and supports to enable people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to challenge the biases that they face, identify the futures they want and the goals and supports that will get them there,” Shogren said.
Recently named Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor of Special Education in the KU School of Education & Human Sciences, Shogren is a senior scientist at the Life Span Institute and associate director of the Beach Center on Disability.
The PCORI-funded project, with additional support from KUCDD, will begin by connecting people with IDD and their family members with clinicians, policymakers, researchers and other interested groups in a new network titled Kansas Health and Research Partnership.
Activities of the network will include recruiting, hosting monthly meetings and a learning series for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities on inclusive research, developing a plain language report, distributing project materials and creating a research agenda that targets participation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as researchers.
Shogren’s research is part of a portfolio of projects that PCORI has funded to help develop a community of patients and other stakeholders equipped to participate as partners in comparative clinical effectiveness research and disseminate PCORI-funded study results. PCORI is an independent organization that funds research to provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better informed health care decisions.
“This project was selected for Engagement Award funding because it will build a community equipped to participate as partners in CER and develop partnerships and infrastructure to disseminate PCORI-funded research results,” said Greg Martin, PCORI’s acting chief engagement and dissemination officer. “We look forward to working with the University of Kansas throughout the course of the 24 months of the project.”
According to PCORI, Shogren’s project was selected through a highly competitive review process in which applications were assessed for their ability to meet PCORI’s engagement goals and objectives, as well as program criteria.
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