New results from the DecomBlades innovation project proofs that glass fibre retrieved from wind turbine blades can be processed and melted to high-quality fibre qualifying to be used in new wind turbine blades.Using the largescale pyrolysis test plant developed by Makeen Energy, the consortium behind the DecomBlades innovation project has succeeded in extracting and processing the principal component – glass fibres – from retired 37-metre wind turbine blades to such a high quality that the material can be melted and used in the production of new wind turbine blades.
In the wake of the successful approval of the quality of the glass fibre retrieved from old wind turbine blades, the material was remelted into new glass fibres at 3B’s plant in Norway in September. Working with DTU Wind and Energy Systems, 3B and DTU will now both examine and verify the properties of the fresh glass fibres with remelted content. At the same time, the project consortium will calculate the environmental impacts (& costs) of replacing raw materials and their extraction process with glass fibre from old wind turbine blades and investigate the business opportunities derived from these.
The partners in the DecomBlades project are MAKEEN Energy, LM Wind Power, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Ørsted, DTU Wind and Energy Systems, The University of Southern Denmark, HJHansen Recycling, FLSmidth and Energy Cluster Denmark. The project is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.
Image: MAKEEN Energy
