Vestas develops wind turbine blade recycling method
Wind turbine maker Vestas has unveiled new technology which it says enables wind turbine blades to be fully recycled, thereby avoiding the disposal of old blades. Developed by a coalition of academics and industry experts, the process has two parts.
First, thermoset composites are disassembled into fibre and epoxy. Second, through a novel ‘chemcycling’ process, the epoxy is further broken up into base components similar to virgin materials. These materials can then be reintroduced into the manufacturing of new turbine blades, constituting a new circularity pathway for epoxy resin.
Wind turbines are currently 85% to 90% recyclable, with turbine blade material constituting the remaining percentage that cannot be recycled, due to the nature of thermoset composites. Vestas and its partners are aiming to close this ‘recycling gap’ with technology ready for commercial adoption in three years.
Photo: Vestas
