The invention relates to a process for the treatment of photovoltaic panels at the end of their life and has the aim of recovering plastics and especially high-purity glass, to put them back on the market as secondary raw materials. The process involves a mechanical treatment of grinding and physical detachment of the adhesives from the other components (glass and other plastics) and further chemical treatments of the plastics and of the fine glass fraction for the recovery of metals in order to obtain an enhanced solid residue. The process allows to reach and exceed the minimum material recovery target set by the European directive 2012/19/EU and equal to 85% by weight.

The invention relates to a process for the treatment of photovoltaic end-of-life panels, such as those made of CdTe and crystalline and amorphous silicon. The process involves automated physical and chemical operations that, combined in a sequence, allow recovering glass in the first place and also tellurium, zinc, cadmium, iron, and concentrate silicon, titanium and silver. By means of this process the different types of panels can also be treated all together, without any kind of preliminary selection. The process guarantees a recovery of glass of 80 to 85% by weight, which alone can satisfy the minimum target for the recovery of material imposed by the recent European directive 2012/19/EU.

The present invention relates to the sector of separation of hydrogen by using semipermeable membranes and more in particular to a process for recovery and recycling of materials that constitute said membranes, with a significant saving in the overall cost. It comprises a hydrometallurgical leaching process that enables preservation of the integrity of the substrate with variable porosity, made of steel, of the tubular-membrane modules and at the same time enables maximum dissolution of the palladium and the silver that constitute the selective barrier of the modules themselves, and a subsequent step of extraction of the palladium and the silver leached during the hydrometallurgical treatment, with the production of a high-purity marketable fertilizer, such as calcium nitrate Ca(NO3)2

The invention concerns a process and related treatment plant for flat Zn/Mn alkaline batteries.

The process comprises the following stages:

• pre-treatment (1) of the batteries comprising in succession the stages of grinding and separation of the two fractions (one coarse, one fine). The fine fraction undergoes the subsequent treatments, after washing in water to separate and recover the electrolytic solution contained in the batteries;
• acid-reducing leaching (2), using as reducing agent a carbohydrate chosen from among monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides and corresponding mixtures;
• purification (3) by cementation;
• separation (4) and recovery of metallic zinc and MnO2 in forms that can be reused to produce new batteries;
• treatment of the solutions (5) by concentration and purification for the recovery of reagents and water.

New batteries can be produced from zinc and manganese dioxide obtained via the process of the invention.

The invention relates to a process for treating all the end-of-life accumulator and battery types except the alkaline, zinc-carbon ones and lead accumulators. The process comprises a first phase of physical operations and a second phase of chemical operations which all together allow the recovery of copper and plastic materials typically contained in nickel-metal hydride accumulators, lithium-ion batteries and accumulators, primary lithium batteries. The process is characterized by the use of a purification operation by means of a solvent which allows obtaining lithium products (Li2CO3), cobalt (Co/CoSO4/CoCO3) and nickel (Ni/NiCO3) with a high purity grade.