Aiming Towards Environmental and Economic Improvements Through Chemical Recycling
Wind turbine blade waste is becoming an increasing problem as the first generation of turbines is now being decommissioned and the blades are ending up mainly in landfill, incineration and the cement industry. The annual volume of this waste in Europe alone is expected to increase from 40,000 tons to 120,000 tons in the next 10 years.
The wind, composite and chemical industries consider it important to improve the circularity of blades, and new innovations in chemical recycling could play a part in that. The goal of Interreg North Sea Region funded project, DecomTools, is to decrease the costs and environmental impact of the decommissioning of offshore wind farms. The chemical recycling of blades is expected to play an important role in meeting those goals. Therefore, Dutch recycling company Virol will be testing it at a pilot scale as part of the project.
By Nina Vielen-Kallio, New Business Manager, Virol, the Netherlands
