Globally, it is estimated that 2.5 million tons of composite materials are currently used in wind turbines and in Europe it is expected that 350 thousand tons of wind turbine blades will be dismantled at the end of their useful life in 2030. However, the Cost-effective recycling of composite materials remains a challenge, and the circularity of wind blades is almost zero today.
The objective of the REWIND (Efficient Dismantling, Reuse and Recycling to Increase Circularity of End-of-Life Wind Energy Systems) project is to develop critical technologies for the dismantling of wind turbine blades and implement new methodologies for reuse and recycling. of composite materials to increase their circularity and the industrial applications of these composites at the end of their useful life, avoiding current landfilling or incineration.
REWIND will carry out an adequate disassembly, quality inspection and characterization of the composite waste, to decide whether these parts at the end of their useful life should be reused or recycled based on their value. The reuse of waste will end with the manufacture of demonstrators for the construction and automotive sectors. The recycling of the most degraded pieces will separate the matrix from the fiber and these recycled fibers (with subsequent application of sizing, spinning and weaving), together with new recycled resin from the monomer of the solvolysis process, will be used in the same wind sector to make a piece of wind blade and a repair kit as demonstrators.
The project is funded by the European Union and includes 14 partners (6 research and development centers, 2 universities, 4 SMEs, 3 large companies and 1 association) from 7 different countries: Spain, France, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Turkey and Greece.
AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Institute, coordinates this research and leads the thermal and chemical recycling tasks. Catalysis-assisted pyrolysis and solvolysis methods will be developed to reduce processing temperature and time. AIMPLAS is also responsible for the repolymerization of the monomers recovered from the organic fraction of the solvolysis to obtain new recycled resins (epoxy, polyester and vitrimeric resins).
The expected results of this 4-year research project are: improvement of the useful life, reliability, recyclability and sustainability of onshore and offshore wind turbines, potential new markets for recycling and/or reuse of wind turbines, improvement of overall sustainability of wind energy systems based on an integrated life cycle analysis that addresses social, economic and environmental aspects and, finally, more efficient decommissioning and greater circularity of the wind sector.
REWIND will contribute to increasing the recyclability of wind turbine blades by developing critical technologies for dismantling and new methodologies for reuse and recycling. The goal will be achieved by combining three key drivers of the 7R Model: Reuse, Recycle and Rethink.
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