THERMODYNAMIC CALCULATION FOR EVALUATING POTENTIAL RELEASE OF TOXIC ELEMENTS FROM COMPOUND SOLAR-CELL MODULES DURING FIRES

摘要

The assessment of public health risks associated with toxic elements released from compound solar cells during fires will be needed for increasing the use of photovoltaic generation systems with those cells. The amounts of toxic elements released during fires are required for a source term in this assessment. In this study, the amounts of Cd, Te, Se and Mo volatilized from CdTe-type (CdTe/CdS) and CIS-type (ZnO/Cu(InGa)Se_2/Mo) cell modules in the combustion tests were analyzed using a thermodynamic calculation using the Thermo-Calc database in order to evaluate the applicability of this calculation as a useful analytical tool. The results showed that this thermodynamic calculation can satisfactorily explain the volatilization behavior of those elements under various atmospheric and temperature conditions in the combustion tests.