This Is Why We Don't Recycle Wind Turbine Blades

Summary

Dieses Video behandelt die Herausforderungen des Recyclings von Windturbinenblättern, die hauptsächlich aus Faser-verstärktem Kunststoff wie Glasfaser oder Kohlenstoff bestehen. Es untersucht die Materialien und Herstellungsmethoden, die den Prozess komplizieren, und diskutiert derzeitige Recyclingmethoden sowie Bemühungen von Herstellern und Lieferanten, Verbesserungen zu erreichen. Die Rolle der Thermoplas- und Thermoset-Harze wird ebenso beleuchtet wie die Bedeutung der vollständigen Lebenszyklus-Betrachtung für die CO2-Emissionen.

Takeaways

• 🌱 Die Öffentlichkeit diskutiert die Nachhaltigkeit von Windenergie, insbesondere in Bezug auf die Abfallbeseitigung von Windraddeln.
• 🔍 Der Fokus liegt auf den Materialien und Herstellungsmethoden von Windraddeln, die das Recycling erschweren.
• 🏗️ Die meisten Teile eines Windraddels sind aus Stahl, Kupfer und Beton und recycelbar, die Rotorblätter aus Glas- oder Kohlenstofffaser stellen jedoch eine Herausforderung dar.
• 🌐 Windraddeltage machen nur etwa 5 bis 10% des globalen Verbrauchs an Verbundmaterialien aus.
• 🚴‍♂️ Der Vergleich von Verbundmaterialmüll durch Windraddeltage mit dem eines Mountainbikers verdeutlicht, dass das Problem übertrieben wird.
• 🏗️ Die Struktur der Rotorblätter, vergleichbar mit einem Springbrett, erfordert eine hohe Steifigkeit und Festigkeit, was die Verwendung von Faser-Verbundmaterialien wie Glas- oder Kohlenstofffaser erfordert.
• 🔗 Die Faser-Verbundstruktur ermöglicht eine hohe Optimierung, indem sie Steifigkeit und Festigkeit dort konzentriert, wo sie am meisten benötigt werden, während die Gesamtmasse reduziert wird.
• 🔥 Das Recycling von Rotorblättern ist schwierig, da die Merkmale, die die Blätter robust machen, sie auch schwer zu zerlegen und zu recyceln machen.
• 🔄 Die ideale Recycling-Szenario würde das Recycling von Glas- und Kohlenstofffasern sowie nutzbarem Harz zur Herstellung von ähnlichen oder neuen Produkten beinhalten.
• 🔧 Es gibt verschiedene Recyclingmethoden wie das kreative Wiederverwenden, das Zerkleinern, das Pyrolyse und die Solvolyse, die jeweils ihre eigenen Vor- und Nachteile haben.
• 🌐 Die Entwicklung neuer Rotorblätter, die leichter recycelbar sind, und die Erforschung von Möglichkeiten zur Wiederverwendung von Faser- und Harzmaterialien aus bestehenden Blättern, sind wichtige Schritte zur Lösung des Recyclingproblems.

Q & A

Wie wird die Nachhaltigkeit von Windenergie durch den Abfall von Windturbinenblättern in Mülldeponien in Frage gestellt?

Die Nachhaltigkeit von Windenergie wird durch die sichtbaren Haufen von Windturbinenblättern in Mülldeponien in Frage gestellt, da sie Anwender und die Öffentlichkeit dazu bringen, über die Umweltauswirkungen von Windenergie nachzudenken.

Was sind die Schwierigkeiten beim Recycling von Windturbinenblättern?

Die Schwierigkeiten beim Recycling von Windturbinenblättern liegen in den Materialien und den Herstellungsmethoden. Die Blätter bestehen hauptsächlich aus Glasfaser und teilweise aus Kohlenstofffaser, die rezyklierungsfreundliche Eigenschaften aufgrund ihrer Verbundstruktur nicht aufweisen.

Welche Materialien machen die meisten Teile eines Windturm aus und sind wiederverwertbar?

Die meisten Teile eines Windturms bestehen aus Stahl, Kupfer und Beton, die Materialien sind wiederverwertbar.

Was ist der Unterschied zwischen den Verbundmaterialien von Windturbinenblättern und anderen Produkten wie Booten, Autos und Flugzeugen?

Obwohl Windturbinenblätter und andere Produkte wie Booten, Autos und Flugzeugen Verbundmaterialien verwenden, machen die Windturbinenblätter nur etwa 5 bis 10% des globalen Verbrauchs an Verbundmaterialien aus.

Wie wird die Herausforderung des Recyclings von Windturbinenblättern durch die Struktur des Materials hervorgehoben?

Die Struktur von Windturbinenblättern ist so konzipiert, dass sie starke Kräfte aushalten müssen. Diese robuste Struktur macht sie für das Recycling interessant, da sie aus sehr starken, dunnen Fasern und einem Harz bestehen, das nach dem Härten nicht mehr leicht zu zersetzen ist.

Was bedeutet der Begriff 'Recycling' im Kontext von Windturbinenblättern?

Im Kontext von Windturbinenblättern beinhaltet 'Recycling' verschiedene Methoden, wie das Verbrennen zur Energiegewinnung oder das Zerkleinern der Blätter für den Einsatz als Füllmaterial in Materialien mit geringerem Anforderungsprofil.

Was sind die idealen Recyclingszenarien für Windturbinenblätter?

Die idealen Recyclingszenarien beinhalten die Wiederverwendung von Glas- und Kohlenstofffasern sowie des Harzes in ähnlichen oder neuen Produkten, wobei Energie, CO2-Emissionen und Kosten eingespart werden.

Wie unterscheidet sich der Harz, der in Windturbinenblättern verwendet wird, von den Harzen in anderen Verbundmaterialien?

Der Harz in Windturbinenblättern ist ein Thermoplastharz, das nach dem Härten eine dauerhafte chemische Veränderung unterliegt und sich nicht wie Thermoplaste wieder verflüssigen lässt, was das Recycling erschwert.

Welche Methoden werden zurzeit verwendet, um Windturbinenblätter zu recyceln?

Zurzeit werden Methoden wie Kreativumnutzung, Zerkleinerung, Pyrolyse und fortschrittliche Recyclingverfahren wie mechanisches Recycling und Solvolysis verwendet.

Was ist die Herausforderung bei der Entwicklung neuer Recyclingmethoden für Windturbinenblätter?

Die Herausforderung bei der Entwicklung neuer Recyclingmethoden besteht darin, die Fasern und Harze ohne ihre Struktureigenschaften zu zerstören zu trennen und dann erneut für strukturell anspruchsvolle Anwendungen wie neue Windturbinenblätter zu verwenden.

Welche Rolle spielen die Kosten bei der Entscheidung für oder gegen das Recycling von Windturbinenblättern?

Die Kosten sind ein entscheidender Faktor, da die meisten Recyclingprozesse teurer sind als das einfache Deponieren. Es ist noch unklar, ob die Verbraucher bereit sind, höhere Kosten für recycelte oder recykelbare Windturbinenblätter zu tragen.

Was sind die potenziellen Vorteile von Sylvolysis im Vergleich zu anderen Recyclingmethoden?

Sylvolysis hat das Potenzial, sowohl Harz als auch Fasern für die Herstellung neuer Windturbinenblätter zu recyceln, was es zu einer der effektivsten Methoden im Hinblick auf den vollständigen Lebenszyklus macht, wenn die Prozessqualität und Effizienz bei der Skalierung verbessert werden können.

Welche Rolle spielen die öffentlichen Bilder von Windturbinenblättern in Deponien für die öffentliche Wahrnehmung von Windenergie?

Die Bilder von Windturbinenblättern in Deponien erwecken negative Emotionen und machen die Öffentlichkeit und Investoren auf das Recyclingproblem aufmerksam, was den Herstellern Anreize gibt, Lösungen zu finden.

Outlines

00:00

🌬️ Die Nachhaltigkeit von Windenergie und ihre Herausforderungen

Der erste Absatz stellt die Frage nach der tatsächlichen Nachhaltigkeit von Windenergie in den Mittelpunkt, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Probleme mit der Wiederverwendung von Windturbinen-Blättern. Rosie Barnes, die Sprecherin und Ingenieurin mit einem Hintergrund in der Turbinenblattdesign, erklärt, dass die meisten Teile einer Windturbine recycelbar sind, während die aus Faser-verstärktem Kunststoff gefertigten Blätter eine einzigartige Herausforderung darstellen. Sie stellt die Bedeutung der Faser-Kunststoff-Verbundwerkstoffe wie Glas- und Kohlenstoffasern her und wie sie in den Turbinenblättern verwendet werden. Die Faserrichtung und die Herstellungsmethoden sind entscheidend für die Leistung der Blätter, was jedoch ihre Wiederverwertung erschwert. Trotz der Tatsache, dass die Umweltauswirkungen von Windturbinen-Blättern oft übertrieben dargestellt werden, ist die Notwendigkeit, diese Probleme zu adressieren, um die Akzeptanz von Windenergie zu erhöhen, unverkennbar.

05:02

🔍 Analyse der Recyclingmethoden für Windturbinenblätter

Der zweite Absatz geht tiefer in die Beschreibung der Materialien und der Herausforderungen bei der Recycling von Windturbinenblättern ein. Die Autorin erläutert, dass die Resin, die in den Blättern verwendet wird, ein thermoplastisches Material ist, das sich nicht wie herkömmliche Kunststoffe recyclen lässt. Es wird verglichen mit dem Kochen eines Eiweiß, das nicht in seinen ursprünglichen Zustand zurückkehren kann. Die verschiedenen Recyclingmethoden, wie das Zerkleinern der Blätter oder das Pyrolyse-Verfahren, werden diskutiert, wobei letzteres die Resin in einfache Substanzen aufspaltet und Fasern für die Wiederverwendung in strukturellen Anwendungen ermöglicht, allerdings mit einer signifikanten Reduzierung ihrer Stärke. Die Herausforderungen und die potenziellen Lösungen für die effiziente Wiederverwendung von Turbinenblättern werden ebenso thematisiert.

10:04

🌱 Fortschritte bei der Entwicklung recycelbarer Turbinenblätter

Der dritte Absatz konzentriert sich auf die Fortschritte in der Entwicklung recycelbarer Turbinenblätter und die Bemühungen der Industrie, diese Technologie zu implementieren. Rosie Barnes erwähnt die Arbeit von LM Wind Power, die eine recycelbare Turbinenblätter aus einem recycelbaren thermoplastischen Harz hergestellt hat, und wie diese Technologie zukünftige Turbinenblätter vollständig recycelbar machen könnte. Es wird auch über die Arbeit von Regen Fiber gesprochen, die dekommisionierte Blätter in wiederverwendbare Materialien für die Beton-, Mörtel- und andere Industrien umwandelt. Die Bedeutung von Solvolysis als eine chemische Recyclingmethode wird ebenso hervorgehoben, die es ermöglicht, Epoxidharze zu recyclen, was bisher nicht möglich war. Die Herausforderungen und die Hoffnung auf Fortschritte in der Recycling-Technologie für Windturbinenblätter werden diskutiert.

15:06

💡 Die Zukunft des Recyclings von Windturbinenblättern

Der vierte Absatz fasst die Diskussion über die Herausforderungen und die zukünftigen Perspektiven des Recyclings von Windturbinenblättern zusammen. Rosie Barnes stellt die Frage nach dem tatsächlichen Wert des Recyclings von Turbinenblättern und diskutiert die Energiebilanz dieser Prozesse. Sie erwähnt eine Studie, die zeigt, dass die Energie, die für das Recycling von Turbinenblättern benötigt wird, im Vergleich zum Betrieb einer Windturbine relativ gering ist. Die Studie von Diez Canemaro und Mendoza wird ebenfalls erwähnt, die besagt, dass die Verwendung von recycelten Materialien in neuen Blättern die Energie- und Emissionen, die für die Herstellung von Neumaterialien benötigt werden, ausgleichen kann. Die Autorin ist optimistisch, dass die Probleme des Turbinenblatt-Recyclings in den kommenden Jahren gelöst werden und dass die Industrie und die Öffentlichkeit diesen Herausforderungen begegnen werden.

Keywords

💡Wind turbine blades

Wind turbine blades sind die langen, flachen Strukturen, die Energie aus dem Wind in mechanische Energie umwandeln. Sie sind aus Faser-verstärktem Kunststoff wie Glasfaser oder Kohlenstoff gefertigt, was sie für die Erzeugung von Strom notwendig, aber auch für das Recycling schwierig macht. Im Video wird erläutert, dass die meisten Teile eines Windrades recycelbar sind, die Blades jedoch eine einzigartige Herausforderung darstellen.

💡Recycling

Recycling bezeichnet den Prozess, bei dem Materialien nach ihrer Verwendung wiederverwertet werden, um Ressourcen zu schonen und die Umweltverschmutzung zu reduzieren. Das Video diskutiert verschiedene Recyclingmethoden für Windradblätter, darunter das Schreddern, Pyrolyse und chemische Verfahren, und wie diese die Nachhaltigkeit beeinflussen.

💡Faser-verstärkte Kunststoffe

Faser-verstärkte Kunststoffe, auch als Verbundmaterialien bekannt, sind Materialien, die Fasermaterialien in einem harten Polymer (Resin) einbetten. Sie sind in der Herstellung von Windradblättern und anderen Produkten verwendet, da sie eine hohe Festigkeit und Steifigkeit bei geringem Gewicht aufweisen. Im Video wird erklärt, dass die Struktur dieser Materialien sie für das Recycling herausforderlich macht.

💡Thermoset

Thermoset sind Kunststoffe, die nach dem Erhiten und Härten eine dauerhafte, nicht wieder auflösliche Struktur aufweisen. Im Gegensatz zu Thermoplastics, die geformt und wiedergeformt werden können, sind Thermosets nach dem Härten für das Recycling ungeeignet. Das Video stellt die Herausforderung dar, Thermoset-Resin aus Windradblättern zu recyceln.

💡Pyrolyse

Pyrolyse ist ein Recyclingverfahren, bei dem Materialien in einem reduzierten Sauerstoffumfeld erhitzt werden, um chemische Verbindungen aufzulösen. Im Video wird beschrieben, dass Pyrolyse verwendet wird, um Resin aus Windradblättern zu zersetzen und Fasern zu recyceln, wobei die Fasern jedoch an Festigkeit verlieren.

💡Solvolysis

Solvolysis ist ein chemisches Verfahren, bei dem Polymere in einem Lösungsmittel geloöst werden, um sie aufzubrechen und Fasern und Harze zu trennen. Im Video wird erwähnt, dass Solvolysis eine Methode zur Recycling von Epoxidharzen ist, die in der Herstellung von Windradblättern verwendet werden.

💡Nachhaltigkeit

Nachhaltigkeit bezieht sich auf die Fähigkeit, Ressourcen und Prozesse so zu verwalten, dass sie für zukünftige Generationen erhalten bleiben. Im Video wird diskutiert, wie verschiedene Recyclingmethoden die Nachhaltigkeit beeinflussen und welche Methoden am wirksamsten sind, um die Umweltauswirkungen von Windradblättern zu reduzieren.

💡CO2 Emissionen

CO2 Emissionen beziehen sich auf die Menge an Kohlenstoffdioxid, das in die Atmosphäre freigesetzt wird. Im Video wird betont, dass die Verbrennung von Windradblättern für Energierückgewinnung CO2 freisetzt und dass die meisten Recyclingprozesse mehr Energie verbrauchen als das einfache Deponieren.

💡Klebende

Klebende sind die harte, faserige Strukturen innerhalb der Windradblätter, die die Stabilität und Festigkeit gewährleisten. Im Video wird erklärt, dass die Orientierung und Kontinuität der Klebende entscheidend ist, um die notwendigen Eigenschaften für die Stromerzeugung zu erreichen.

💡Lebenszyklusanalyse

Eine Lebenszyklusanalyse ist eine Methode, die den gesamten Verlauf eines Produkts von der Herstellung bis zum Ende seiner Lebensdauer untersucht. Im Video wird erwähnt, dass die Lebenszyklusanalyse hilft, die Umweltauswirkungen von Windradblättern zu verstehen und zu optimieren.

Highlights

Wind turbine blades made mostly of fiberglass and sometimes carbon fiber present a unique recycling challenge.

Wind turbine blades account for only about 5 to 10% of global composite material use.

The problem of wind turbine blade waste is overstated compared to other environmental issues like climate change.

Wind turbine blades are designed to withstand extreme forces, making them incredibly stiff, strong, and light.

Fiber reinforced materials like fiberglass and carbon fiber are key to achieving the properties of wind turbine blades.

The durability of wind turbine blades that allows them to last for decades also makes them hard to recycle.

Recycling wind turbine blades is not as straightforward as it seems, with different methods having different environmental impacts.

The ideal recycling scenario would involve recovering glass and carbon fibers and usable resin to create new products.

Thermoset resins used in wind turbine blades are difficult to recycle because they form a complex cross-linked network upon curing.

Creative repurposing of wind turbine blades for applications like bike shelters is not a scalable solution.

Shredding wind turbine blades allows for their use in applications where structural integrity is not crucial.

Pyrolysis is an advanced recycling method that chemically decomposes the resin, allowing for fiber recovery, but with reduced strength.

Designing new blades that are easier to recycle and finding ways to reuse fiber and resin from existing blades are current industry approaches.

Thermoplastic resins could make future blades fully recyclable, but they currently have lower structural properties than thermosets.

Advanced mechanical recycling and pyrolysis processes are being developed to improve the recycling of wind turbine blades.

Chemical recycling methods like solvolysis are being explored to separate and recover fibers and resins from wind turbine blades.

The energy and emissions required for recycling wind turbine blades need to be considered in the context of their full lifecycle impact.

The cost of recycling and the willingness to pay more for recycled or recyclable wind turbine blades are significant considerations for the industry.

Transcripts

Have you ever wondered how green wind energy really is, especially

when you see those vast piles of wind turbine blades dumped in landfill?

Social media and articles like this one from Bloomberg have raised

this question, casting doubts on the sustainability of wind power.

Some people are saying it's actually horrible for the environment.

Today we're going to tackle this issue head on.

We'll examine why recycling wind turbine blades is such a challenge,

focusing on the materials and manufacturing methods involved.

Then we'll scrutinize the current recycling

methods and discuss what needs to change for blades to be effectively recycled.

We'll also evaluate the efforts of wind turbine manufacturers and composite

material suppliers towards this goal.

I'm Rosie Barnes.

Welcome to Engineering with Rosie.

I'm an engineer with a Ph.D.

in wind turbine blade design and years of experience

working for a wind turbine blade manufacturer.

So I think I am pretty well placed to answer the question of today's video.

Why are wind turbine blades so hard to recycle?

First, let's put wind turbine waste into context.

Most parts of a wind turbine are made

from steel, copper and concrete, and they're recyclable.

However, the blades made mostly of fiberglass and sometimes

carbon fiber, present a unique recycling challenge.

this challenge is shared with other products made of

composite materials like boats, cars and airplanes.

And in fact, wind

turbine blades account for only about 5 to 10% of global composite material use.

Very early in this YouTube channel, I made a video on wind turbine blade waste

and did some rough calculations that showed that if I were to get all my household

electricity from wind over 20 years, my share of composite material waste from

that would be less than the composite waste from my mountain biking habit.

"My mountain bike is German and it has more composite materials in it

than a German's share of wind turbine blades over twenty years of electricity use."

So all that is to say that, yeah,

the problem is overstated and it's overblown.

However, blade recycling is still an issue that ought to be addressed,

even if it's not the largest environmental issue we face compared to,

oh say, climate change caused by burning fossil fuels.

And now it is a reality that wind

turbine blades going into landfill, create a really bad vibe surrounding wind energy.

And the general public does want this solved.

So what would it take to stop blades going to landfill?

And why aren't we already doing it?

Understanding the structural design of wind

turbine blades is key to grasping why they pose a recycling challenge.

You can picture a wind turbine blade as a giant cantilever beam,

much like a diving board.

It's fixed at one end and free at the other.

A 30 meter long blade, which is small by today's standards, has to be able to

withstand extreme gusts of wind that exert nearly 200,000 Newtons of force.

That's equivalent to the weight of about four African elephants.

These blades must be incredibly stiff to avoid bending

into the tower and extremely strong to resist breaking.

And at the same time,

they need to be light enough for the tower and bearings to support them.

The key to being able to achieve this remarkable

combination of stiffness, strength and light weight lies in

fiber reinforced materials like fiberglass and carbon fiber.

These materials contain fibers that are very strong

because they are too thin to contain any defects, but they are floppy like a rope.

Then the fibers are contained in a resin, which is not particularly strong

or stiff on its own.

But the resin keeps all the fibers in place.

Once you put the fibers in resin and the resin cures,

fibers can't fly past each other anymore.

And so the composite

material becomes very stiff and strong in the direction of the fibers.

the composite structure allows for a high degree of optimization,

concentrating the stiffness and strength

where it's needed most while keeping overall mass down.

When manufacturing wind turbine blades, the orientation of fibers is crucial.

Most fibers align along the blade length, ensuring strength and stiffness

where it's needed, and they need to be continuous.

So wind turbine blades are made in a single piece, layering dry glass

fabric in a mold and infusing it with resin under a vacuum.

Once that resin cures, you're left with a very durable structure.

These plants need to withstand exposure to the elements for 20 or 30 years.

The fact they can do that is a great engineering feat,

but their incredible durability also makes them hard to recycle.

As we move on to recycling, you need to keep in mind that the features

making these blades robust also make them tough to break down and recycle.

Photos of wind turbine blades in landfill

look terrible, and the idea of recycling gives off a very nice vibe.

But let's dive a little bit beneath appearances and vibes.

What does recycling actually mean?

It's not as straightforward as you might think.

Is burning material for energy recovery considered recycling?

What about shredding the blades to use them as filler

for low value materials where structural integrity isn't crucial?

Does that count as recycling?

Recycling options like these raise questions

about sustainability and environmental impact.

For instance, burning blades releases CO2.

Recycling plastics often uses more energy than producing from virgin materials,

and using shredded materials as filler wastes those amazing structural properties

that we just discussed.

The ideal recycling scenario would involve recovering glass and carbon fibers

and usable resin to create similar or new products.

And it would save energy, CO2 emissions and money along the way.

But that is incredibly hard, and it's not what the majority of today's

blade recycling projects that you hear about are even attempting to do.

Let's talk in a bit more depth about fiber reinforced composite materials

to find out why.

Remember that fiberglass or carbon fiber are a combination of two elements

The fiber and the resin bonded tightly together.

The key to recycling composites

is separating those two components without destroying them.

the resin is a type of plastic and on a molecular level, it's

composed of long polymers that slide past each other when in liquid form

and they solidify upon curing.

You might be thinking that recycling plastics is a straightforward process.

We do it all the time, right?

PET bottles are recycled into new bottles or into new products

such as trendy workout gear or durable outdoor furniture. yet.

This method can't be used for wind turbine blades.

Due to the distinct nature of the resin involved.

The resin used in these blades is a thermoset which,

unlike Thermoplastics, undergoes a permanent chemical change upon curing.

The change is similar to cooking an egg.

Once the egg is fried or hard boiled, it cannot revert to its raw state.

The polymers in thermostats form a complex cross-linked network

when they're cured, and those links can't be easily broken down again.

That makes them impossible to melt down and reshape like them in plastics

which behave more like spaghetti.

thermoplastic polymers don't crosslink, they just tangle.

and they're easily untangled and reshaped when they're heated.

This distinction between thermosets and thermoplastics is a key factor

in the difficulty of recycling wind turbine blades.

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Let's move on now

to the different methods we can use to recycle wind turbine blades.

The first and simplest

method is to creatively repurpose turbine blades for new uses.

Given their size and durability, blades can be cut up and used for applications

like bike shelters and playground structures or whatever.

Every time someone makes something like this, it always gets widely shared.

People go nuts for this stuff,

but there are over a million wind turbine blades in the world today.

Do we realistically want a million wind turbine blade shaped bridges?

I mean, I love wind energy way more than the average person,

but I don't want every bike, shelter and playground

in the world to look like a hunk of wind turbine blade.

I don't really think that's a scalable solution.

So let's move on to more versatile recycling methods.

Shredding is a key method in recycling wind turbine blades.

It involves breaking down the blades

into smaller, more manageable fragments, which can be used in applications

where the demanding structural integrity of the original blade isn't required.

For example, the shredded material can be incorporated into products

like decking materials, vehicle dashboard, or even for 3D printing.

you can also use shredded wind turbine blade materials in cement production.

This process has a dual purpose.

The organic content of the blades is recovered as energy,

while the mineral fraction becomes integrated into the cement clinker.

One tonne of blade waste can cut CO2 emissions by 110 kilos,

and save 461 kilos of raw materials compared to the standard cement

manufacturing process.

Pyrolysis is an advanced recycling method for wind turbine blades that involves

heating the material

between 4-7 hundred degrees Celsius in a low oxygen environment.

This process chemically decomposes the resin into simple substances

and allows for the recovery of fibers which can

then be reused in structural applications.

But the fibers strength is reduced by as much as 50% after being heated.

So you can't easily make new wind turbine blades out of the recovered fibers

as they're no longer strong enough.

Other downsides to pyrolysis include high energy use and CO2 emissions,

and you don't recover the resin

while the methods mentioned so far, offer valuable ways to reuse

composite materials, they generally lead to a lot of degradation,

limiting the materials used in structural and demanding applications

like new blades.

So now let's move on to more advanced recycling methods, where the goal is

to be able to reuse the fiber and or resin in structurally demanding uses.

There's a two pronged approach to this occurring in industry now.

One, designing new blades that are easier to recycle, and two,

coming up with ways we can reuse fiber and resin from existing blades.

To the extent that you could make new blades from those recovered materials.

remember earlier

we talked about how easy thermoplastics are to recycle versus thermosets?

If we could make wind turbine blades using thermoplastic resins,

the task of recycling would be so much easier.

Thermoplastic resins can be melted away from fibers

and then recombined into new blades while preserving their structural properties.

This approach won't help recover materials from existing blades,

but could make future blades fully recyclable.

The challenge is that thermoplastic resins usually have much lower

structural properties than Thermosets,

but there has been progress recently in a few projects

working on new types of thermoplastic resins and new structural design

and manufacturing methods to create fully recyclable thermoplastic blades.

Recently, LM Wind Power, who I used to work for, has manufactured the second ever

recyclable blade using Arkema as ilium recyclable thermoplastic resin.

The blade is 77

meters long, so similar to most onshore wind turbine blades and its shear web.

That's the structural component inside the blade that holds the two shells apart.

They made that using recycled resin.

This blade has already completed static testing where the blade is exposed

to extreme loads and it will undergo fatigue testing over the next few months.

In the second prong of blade

recycling efforts, new recycling methods for existing blades.

There's a lot of progress here too, in higher tech versions

of all the standard recycling processes that we covered earlier,

there is advanced mechanical recycling.

One example of this is Regen fiber

who are able to convert decommissioned blades

into reusable materials for the concrete, mortar and other industries.

And they can also break blades down into little pencil like pieces

that function like a mini rebar in applications like road construction.

There is also advanced pyrolysis, such as the multi-stage process

that Ryan Ginder

from the University of Tennessee discussed with me in one of the very early videos

on this channel.

by carefully controlling the temperature of the pyrolysis process,

the structural properties of the recovered fiber can be maintained

much closer to the virgin material.

the recycled glass fiber can be made into nonwoven fabrics, continuous textile

yarns, automotive sheet molded components and plastic injection molding pellets,

besides pyrolysis,

There are other forms

of chemical recycling being applied to wind turbine blades.

Solvolysis involves dissolving polymers in a solvent where controlled temperature

and pressure conditions facilitates the breakdown of the polymer

matrix, allowing for the separation and recovery of fibers and resins.

Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is working on commercialization

of a sylvolysis recycling process as part of a collaboration

called Circular Economy for Thermoset Epoxy Composites or Cetec.

Together with two Danish universities and epoxy resin supplier Olin,

they produced a large scale proof

of concept in early 2022, but have been quiet since then.

So I'm not totally sure how the scaleup is going in terms of technology maturity.

It's way behind the mechanical

and pyrolysis processes that we discussed earlier.

However, if it's successful,

it will be a way to recycle epoxy resin, which the other methods aren't.

That would be halfway to the holy grail of wind turbine blade recycling.

The ability to recover both resin and fiber for reuse and new blades

and the other half may have actually already been achieved.

While I was researching for this video,

there was an announcement by Decom Blades.

They have produced recovered fibers that can be used to make new blades.

They used pyrolysis to separate out the glass material from old blades

and then grind that into a powder which can be melted to produce new fibers.

And they actually did this at 3B's glass

fiber manufacturing plant in Norway last September.

They say they can replace up to 5% of virgin glass.

Yeah, that doesn't sound like a lot, does it?

However, because these days there are a lot more new blades

being made than old blades being decommissioned.

Substituting 1 to 5% of raw materials in new blades is actually

enough to make use of all the current number of decommissioned blades.

It'll be decades before the number of retiring blades

catches up, with the number of new blades being produced.

And by then other methods will hopefully have progressed to the point

where most of that can be covered by recycling.

That is a nice, uplifting way to finish this video, isn't it?

Perhaps uncharacteristically optimistic for me.

Sorry, but I'm not going to end like that.

I have made it most of the way to the end of this video

without addressing the biggest problem of all with wind turbine blade recycling

and that is why do we even want to recycle wind turbine blades?

Did you notice how complicated all these processes are?

and the closer we get to the Holy Grail of recycling old wind turbine blades into

new wind turbine blades,

The more complicated it

gets, the more processes are needed and the more transport between facilities.

How much energy do you think that uses?

Well, it turns out it's a lot.

this question was addressed in a 2018 study by Liu

at al, which found that the energy needed to process one kilogram of wind

turbine blade waste was 0.26 mega joules to put blades in landfill.

That's a little under point one

kilowatt hours and around 20 mega joules for the various chemical processes.

that's nearly 100 times more energy for advanced recycling compared

to simply landfilling

Incineration with energy recovery generates rather than consumes energy.

However, it releases CO2 in the process.

So only really a good outcome if it's replacing a fossil

fuel energy source such as in a cement kiln,

or if it includes carbon capture, which so far it does not.

Let me just add in lest

This get taken out of context.

Even the most energy intensive recycling process is only using about as much energy

as the blades would have produced in a few days during the operational life.

So we are not anywhere near the level where you could say that

recycling blades uses more energy than the turbine ever generated.

not that that is going to stop anyone from trying to claim that.

But if you want to minimize energy use and emissions from a decommissioned wind

turbine blade, don't transport it anywhere, don't process it, and definitely

don't take carbon atoms that are currently bound up in the resin and liberate them

to form CO2 in the atmosphere by burning them without carbon capture.

But end of life, energy use and emissions aren't the only concern.

The full lifecycle matters.

This was the topic of another recent study by Diez Canemaro and Mendoza.

If you consider the whole life of the wind turbine blade, then

using recycled materials in new blades will offset

some of the energy and emissions needed to produce virgin materials.

The more that can be recovered and the better its quality,

the less virgin materials are needed.

this study found that Sylvolysis even though it has a second

highest emissions from end of life processing,

it emerged as the most effective in terms of circularity

and full lifecycle CO2 emissions, significantly outperforming other methods

such as pyrolysis and landfilling, and with potential to improve further.

If the process can be developed to improve material quality

of the recycled material and if efficiencies can be maintained

as the process is scaled from where it is now and basically in the lab

up to commercial scale.

So yes, I do think the situation is looking pretty positive overall.

The only downer left is the issue of cost,

which no one likes to talk about,

and it's really hard to estimate for something like sylvolysis anyway.

That still needs to be scaled a long way.

Will we be happy to pay more for recycled or recyclable wind turbine blades?

Cynically, I would say probably not unless regulations force it, which

they may soon.

I think the biggest driver

for the wind turbine manufacturers is those images of blades

going into landfill have really captured the attention of the general public.

It's just not a good look And I have discovered

that it's not really a winning tactic to try to explain that Landfilling Blades

is actually a decent environmental outcome if you look at the issue logically.

So I'm looking forward to watching progress on the issue of blade recycling.

Over coming years I think we will see this problem solved.

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