recycling fiberglass wind turbine blades
Wind energy generation, now topping 100 gigawatts nationally, will create 1 million tons of fiberglass … Innovative recycling helps recover a multitude of materials. “The chemical industry plays a decisive role in the transition to a circular economy by investing in the research and development of new materials, which make wind turbine blades more reliable, affordable and recyclable,” says CEFIC Director General, Marco Mensink. Wind turbine designs have evolved over time to increase in size and efficiency, ultimately leading to greater generating capacity. Thanks to $1.1 million in funding from the Department of Energy’s Small Business Technology Transfer program and Wind Energy Technologies Office, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is developing a new technology for the large-scale recycling of wind turbine blades into new recycled composites. A wind turbine’s blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can’t just be hauled away. The first turbines to be dismantled have revealed an unexpected complication: wind turbine design is not always eco-friendly. “Innovation is born from collaboration and we look forward to working together to advance wind turbine blade recycling.” Their Seattle-area-based company, which has been recycling fiberglass since 2008, has invented a way to transform the old blades into products like manhole covers, building panels and pallets. The process begins at the wind farm itself, where technicians from GFSI cut dismantle blades into more manageable 37-meter chunks. The wind energy industry is one of the fastest-growing application sectors of composites, where reinforcement fibers are used in the manufacturing of light rotor blades. Carbon fibers should also be considered in the future design of rotor blades, because although they display and increase in cost they provide better mechanical properties and are more resilient in the recycling process than glass fibers.With this reduction in waste, the wind turbine will be an even more sustainable form of energy. Currently, between 85-90% of a turbine’s parts can be recycled or sold, including the foundation, tower, gear box, and generator. They are made with use of glass fibre (the older ones) or carbon fibre (the more recent models). The principle design of commercial turbines today are horizontal axis wind turbines consisting of a rotor with three fiberglass blades attached to a hub, which is itself attached to a central piece (the nacelle) that is mounted on a steel tower. Considering the limited lifetime of turbine blades, a growing number of wind turbines will start to be decommissioned. He acknowledges, though, that disposing of the blades is a challenge. 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