Collaborative disposal of exhaust gas and waste wind turbine blades: Mechanical properties of recycled glass fibres and economic analysis

Abstract

The accumulation of waste wind turbine blades poses significant environmental challenges. Pyrolysis offers an industrially viable solution for both disposal and the recycling of valuable glass fibers from these blades. Exhaust gas from industrials with waste heat can be utilized to reduce the process cost. However, for mixed atmosphere of exhaust gas containing both CO2 and O2, its influence on resin matrix decomposition characteristics and fiber mechanical properties are currently unclear. This work provided a solution collaborated with exhaust gas to disposal of waste wind turbine blades, in which operating parameters (atmosphere composition and process procedure) were optimized. Results showed that the early invention at pyrolysis with low concentration of O2 in exhaust gas played a major role in facilitating the formation of surface protection. Atmosphere during oxidation of pyrolytic residual carbon was crucial in maintaining fiber strength. At this stage, the interaction between CO2 (especially at 15% concentration) and O2 could mitigating fiber degradation through promoting the re-oxidization of Si dangling bonds and reducing water corrosion. However, stepwise processing of pyrolysis first and then oxidation under exhaust gas with O2 containing was not recommended due to its little cost-effectiveness. The single step disposal of wind turbine blades collaborated with coal-fired flue gas could increase the strength of recycled glass fiber by over 50% and reduced process costs by 34%.