A brief review on recycling and reuse of wind turbine blade materials

Abstract

Large number of wind turbines which have been installed by the wind energy industry in the last three decades will become scrap in near future. Wind turbine blades are the most sophisticated and at the same time, one of the largest part of the wind energy systems. During the breakdown or at the end of life period of a blade, the disposal of the blade material is a serious concern. Hence, the study of recycling and reusing the wind turbine blade is essential. The present work is a review on recycling and reuse of wind turbine blades that includes techniques of recycling, diverse materials used for blade manufacturing, wastage of materials during the different stages of its lifecycle and the energy consumption of particular recycling processes along with the energy content of the blade materials. The commonly used materials for wind turbine blades are polymers (Polyester (PE) resin, Epoxy (EP) resin and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)) and fibers (Glass Fiber (GF) and Carbon Fiber (CF)); among these the CF has the highest recycling energy consumption of 183–286 MJ/kg. The different types of processes used for the recycling of wind turbine blade are mechanical, thermal (pyrolysis and oxidation in fluidized bed) and chemical. The recycling energy consumption for mechanical processes are minimal (0.27/3.03 MJ/kg), whereas the same for chemical processes are highest (63–91 MJ/kg).