OnePlanet Unveils PRISM: Silicon Above 95% Purity with Ore-Grade Silver from End-of-Life Solar Panels

OnePlanet, a U.S.-based advanced materials recovery company, unveiled PRISM, a proprietary, fully automated process that recovers copper, aluminum, and high-purity silicon carrying ore-grade silver from end-of-life solar panels at the company's Florida facility. PRISM has completed all engineering testing, with anticipated production beginning in 2027. PRISM ("Photovoltaic Recycling through Integrated Systems and Mechanics") is the Company's next-generation, ground-up redesign of the line running at OnePlanet's commercial demonstration facility in Green Cove Springs, Florida, which has processed end-of-life crystalline-silicon modules for more than two years.

Developed over the past 15 months, the process is fully mechanical, using no thermal or chemical separation steps.

In repeated, staged testing of the complete equipment configuration, PRISM removed 99.5% of module glass at 99% glass purity before any size-reduction step; recovering clean, saleable glass while leaving the silicon- and silver-bearing cell material concentrated rather than diluted through mixed, crushed streams. Performance held on monofacial and bifacial modules alike, whether intact or storm-damaged. Proprietary downstream stages then concentrate that material into a silicon stream exceeding 95% purity carrying approximately 1% silver, as well as a 99% pure copper granulate stream, and a 99.9% pure aluminum (6063) product. The results are supported by testing at independent third-party laboratories.

"One percent silver is not a trace amount. In metallurgical terms, that's a substantial grade, richer than most mined ore," said André Pujadas, Chief Executive Officer of OnePlanet. "Combined with silicon above 95% purity, you have a single feedstock that can feed both an MGS and silver refinery under one roof. Achieving this level of purity for the silicon stream is a substantial milestone in our pursuit of entering the metallurgical grade market, while further diversifying the process to enable 5N silver."

Before co-founding OnePlanet, Pujadas spent his career in steel and metals recovery at Nucor Corporation, PSC Metals and Severstal, where he helped lead the electric-arc-furnace transformation that made recycled scrap the backbone of American steel production.

Silicon and silver were both added to the U.S. Critical Minerals List in November 2025, and both are materials the United States today imports in volume even as domestic solar and advanced manufacturing grow. OnePlanet has been awarded a $14.5 million investment tax credit allocation under the federal Qualifying Advanced Energy Project (48C) program to support construction of its first industrial-scale facility, dubbed 'River City', which will house the first fully integrated PRISM production lines.

OnePlanet's next development program is the metallurgical-grade silicon (MGS) refining process itself –designed to recover the contained silver within the refining step, so silver emerges as a second finished product – targeted for 2030. Silicon above 95% purity requires far less upgrading to reach MGS specification, significantly reducing the energy and emissions intensity of the refining step compared with producing MGS from virgin quartzite. Once the refinery is online, the silicon output from PRISM would be consumed internally, completing OnePlanet's transition from materials recovery into the multi-billion-dollar MGS and silver refining markets.

OnePlanet | www.1planetrecycling.com