Abstract
Fibre reinforced polymer composites are gaining wide acceptability in different sectors due their high specific mechanical properties. They have effectively replaced conventional material like metals in many applications thus imparting lighter weight with higher efficiency. Wind energy sector has grown tremendously over the last decade and as per “The Global Wind Turbine Market-Forecasts from 2020 to 2025”, global wind turbine market was valued at US$ 90.144 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.34 % to reach an estimated market size of US$123.154 billion by 2025. Wind turbine blades are fabricated using fibre reinforced composites with ideally a balsa or foam core. The composites used in this case are essentially glass reinforced in epoxy resins, and these highly engineered materials are difficult to recycle as epoxy is a thermoset resin and are not re-mouldable. This poses an environmental problem and a loss in terms of recoverable capital. Thermoplastics as against thermosets could be an alternative resin material for the blades but this has been less explored by the wind sector. The use of thermoplastic could impart cost reductions due to shorter manufacturing cycle times, recovery of raw materials and reduced tooling adjustments in terms of heating. Recovery of composite constituent parts can provide economic benefits because those constituent parts have high embedded energy. In the context of this dilemma of recyclability of wind turbine blades, this review paper intent to explore the current research and future prospect of recycling wind turbine blade materials.
Highlights
Fibre reinforced polymer composites are characterised by their higher strength and lower weight which has made them an ideal replacement where metals were used historically especially in the transport sector to significantly reduce the energy consumption and reduce the environmental fallout
Three types of composites found in general application are polymer-matrix composites (PMC), metal-matrix composites (MMC) and ceramic-matrix composites (CMC)
With the development of infusible thermoplastic resins for the blades, there exists a potential for recycling being more sustainable [22]. 40 % of the costs of a wind turbine blade come from the labour cost and this cost is linked to the cycle time, by replacing thermoset with thermoplastic in the manufacturing process, there exists a possibility to reduce the cycle time [23]
Summary
Fibre reinforced polymer composites are characterised by their higher strength and lower weight which has made them an ideal replacement where metals were used historically especially in the transport sector to significantly reduce the energy consumption and reduce the environmental fallout. Polymer based composites dominates the market and thermosets are the most widely used [1]. Wind turbine blades are made of reinforcements of fibres (glass or carbon) in plastic polymer such as epoxy, with balsa wood or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as sandwich core materials and bonded joints, coatings and lightning conductors (fig 1). Professor Henning Albers from the Institute für Umwelt und Biotechnik (Hochschule Bremen, Germany) estimated that for each 1 kW installed an equivalent of 10 kg of rotor blade material would be required. This means a 7.5 MW turbine would require 75 tonnes of material! This paper intents to review existing literature on current techniques on recycling wind turbine blades and looking into alternative materials that could make the recycling more sustainable
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