Glass fibers from used wind turbine blades can literally be given new air and recycled to produce high-quality fibers for new blades.
New material passport can turn wing scrap into qualified recycling – and the entire industry supports it.
It has never harmonized very well that the green wind energy production comes with a boring side benefit in the form of worn-out turbine blades, which at best are used for cement production, but most often end up as buried waste.
The innovation project has it DecomBlades done something about.
In a large-scale pyrolysis plant, the partner group in DecomBlades has managed to separate glass fibers from wind turbine blades in a quality so that they can be used as raw material in the production of high-quality fibers for new wind turbine blades.
This is really good news for the industry – a calculation from WindEurope has shown that in 2025 there will be approximately 66,000 tonnes of end-of-life wind turbine blades in Europe.
However, the technical solution cannot stand alone. There needs to be a demand so that the blades don’t just spin around while sitting on the mill, but also form part of a circular circuit.
A material passport developed by the DecomBlades project helps with this.
“It has been impressive to see how the OEMs have driven the work forward together. It shows that there is a greater goal with projects” – Sophus Borch Business Development Manager at HJHansen Recycling Group
The material passport contains information about which materials have been used and their location in the individual wing. This makes it easier for recycling companies to separate the wings so that the individual parts can be used again.
“The material passport is the result of a strong collaboration in the DecomBlades consortium, but also has support from blade manufacturers outside the consortium. This ensures the implementation of standardized material passports in the wind industry. It’s really strong,” says John Korsgaard, Senior Director at LM Wind Power and chairman of the DecomBlades consortium
Will bring great value
In addition to LM Wind Power, the consortium also includes Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Vestas, but the material passport currently has support from manufacturers such as Nordex, Acciona, GE Vernova and Enercon.
“It gives us faith that wings can be disposed of in a sustainable way in the future, and that we can really get closer to a circular economy,” says John Korsgaard.
Here, too, the support of a unified industry will be decisive.
“We have demonstrated in the project that wind turbine blades can be reused to manufacture new wind turbine blades. But that does not in itself create the basis for business in the sub-supplier chain. As producers, we ourselves must help to establish this by demanding recycled products. In order to recycle used wind turbine blades efficiently, it is important that they are separated into fractions that can be used in the sub-supplier chain. The material pass can help with that,” says John Korsgaard.
From the next link in the value chain, the material pass will bring great value, points out Sophus Borch, Business Development Manager at HJHansen Recycling Group. The company is among Northern Europe’s leading companies in recycling and engaged with DecomBlades to facilitate the processes:
“The challenge with the wings is that they are very different – both chemically and physically. It affects the logistics, the further processing and the business potential of the raw material,” he says:
“We don’t need to know all the details, but dimensions and the roughest composition make a big difference. The material pass can solve that. It is a product declaration, which makes it easier for us and for the customers,” he says.
Source: it-kanalen.dk
