Have you ever wondered how green wind energy really is, especially when you see those vast piles of wind turbine blades dumped in landfills? Social media posts with photos of wind turbine blades in landfill have raised this question, casting doubts on the sustainability of wind power. Is it actually horrible for the environment?
Today, we'll examine why recycling wind turbine blades is such a challenge, focusing on the materials and manufacturing methods involved. Then, we'll scrutinize the current recycling methods and discuss what needs to change for blades to be effectively recycled. We'll also evaluate the efforts of wind turbine manufacturers and composite material suppliers towards this goal.
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Bookmarks:
00:00 Intro
00:41 Wind turbine waste in context
02:12 Wind turbine blade structural design
05:09 Thermoplastics vs thermosets
06:24 Get 20% of Everything Electric Australia tickets
07:24 Repurposing wind turbine blades
08:06 Shredding
08:26 Cement co-processing
09:53 Thermoplastic wind turbine blades
10:57 Advanced recycling methods
13:42 Energy use and CO2 emissions from recycling
17:08 Outro
Sources:
For data, images & graphs
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills?leadSource=uverify%20wall
https://www.nrel.gov/news/program/2023/new-prize-to-propel-wind-turbine-materials-recycling.html
https://www.pbsnc.org/blogs/science/how-much-wind-does-a-wind-turbine-need/#:~:text=Most%20of%20what%20you%20would,prevent%20damage%20to%20the%20blades
https://energynews.us/2023/12/21/spirit-of-giving-is-central-to-cleveland-area-companys-blades-to-benches-business/
https://blog.undeerc.org/2021/03/10/separating-wind-turbine-blades-for-reuse-recycling-and-repurposing/
https://www.goldwind.com/en/news/focus-article/?id=737300515733524480
https://www.regenfiber.com/about/pressrelease-2023-01-12
https://weatherguardwind.com/regen-fiber/
https://ir.tpicomposites.com/websites/tpicomposites/English/2120/us-press-release.html?airportNewsID=56036c4d-f25f-415b-9cd8-39570fc14a44
https://energywatch.com/EnergyNews/Cleantech/article16632440.ece?utm_campaign=Energy[…]tm_content=2023-11-24&utm_medium=email&utm_source=energywatch
https://www.windtech-international.com/product-news/decomblades-breakthrough-in-recycling-wind-turbine-blades
https://decomblades.dk/index.php/2023/04/20/632/
https://www.voxelmatters.com/goldwind-recycles-wind-turbine-blades-into-3d-printing-material/
https://www.lmwindpower.com/en/stories-and-press/stories/news-from-lm-places/lm-wind-p[…]ls-second-recyclable-wind-turbine-blade-under-zebra-project
https://www.project-cetec.dk/uk/
Journals and Scientific Papers
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/22/7624
https://www.mdpi.com/2313-4321/4/2/24
https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/5d6c2c41-5166-47f2-8961-49d2afc23eff/content
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956053X23002726
The Engineering with Rosie team is:
Rosemary Barnes: Presenter, producer, writer
Javi Diez: Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/javierdiezsuarez/
Fatini Nur: Research and production assistant https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatinin