Life cycle assessment of carbon reduction potential of EoL wind turbine blades disposal scenarios in China

Abstract

It is estimated that there will be 85,000 tons of End-of-Life (EoL) wind turbine blades in China by 2050. How to disposing discarded blades has become a significant problem restricting the development of wind power industry in China. To this end, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed to measure the carbon reduction (CR) potential of four disposal scenarios of EoL LM 37.3 P2 blades. The contribution of each scenario to reduce the carbon emission intensity of a specific wind farm is further evaluated. At the same time, the critical transportation distance to maintain the CR potential of each scenario is estimated. The results show that: firstly, the disposal scenarios with the greatest and smallest CR potential are producing concrete by EoL blades instead of cements and producing concrete by EoL blades instead of aggregates, respectively. The former one is determined as the baseline scenario, which can reduce 4516 kg CO2-eq carbon emissions per functional unit. Secondly, the critical transportation distances for incineration for electricity, co-processing and producing concrete by EoL blades instead of cements are 895 km, 3309 km and 9716 km. Finally, a reasonable recycling strategy can reduce the life-cycle carbon emission intensity of Datang Zhaluteqi 49.5 MW Wind Farm from 12.51 g CO2-eq/kWh to 9.22 g CO2-eq/kWh. This study not only quantifies the CR potential of different scenarios, but also offers important implications to promote blade disposal technology and improve the wind turbine blade recycling management.