#fibreglass

House in Gurre, Elsinore, Denmark - Kim Lenschow

A team from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences devised a method of crushing and chemically treating old turbine blades so that they could be mixed into materials used in road construction. 

This material was already trialed and has been in place on a section of Qingfu Highway in northwest China for over five months. So far, there have been no reports of cracking or rutting in this hybrid material, and it appears to be "long-lasting." 

While most parts from old wind turbines can be recycled or reused, including the shell, nacelle, and metallic internal components, the long blades are typically made from fiberglass. That's especially true of blades that are reaching the end of their lifespan now, after having been in use for the last couple of decades.

This breakthrough joins a short list of applications – compiled by Chemical & Engineering News – where recycled blades can be useful:

Global Fiberglass Solutions, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, turns the blades into reinforced plastic pellets for manufacturing durable products like maintenance hole covers.

Waste management giant Veolia shreds blades into small pieces that go in kilns to replace the coal, sand and clay required to make cement.

Knoxville, Tennessee's Carbon Rivers recovers strong fibers from blades using a high-temperature process called pyrolysis; these can be used as-is or in the form of thermoplastic fabrics or pellets to make heavy-duty automotive parts.

There are also a number of efforts to make blades easier to repurpose or discard – from a quick-dissolving resin to manufacture them, to GE's recyclable thermoplastic, to a relatively inexpensive way to break down epoxy-based blades.

But while those are being tested and deployed worldwide over the next few decades, we'll still have this mounting issue of disposed blades to solve. The Lanzhou research team, meanwhile, will take on more projects to demonstrate its recycling technique, and establish it as a scalable way to repurpose old blades.

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Languages: Czech

Masses of fibreglass debris from wind turbine blades and aircraft parts were illegally transported from Germany to a small Czech municipality, prompting investigations and calls for a European solution, as it was not an isolated case. The first waste lorries arrived in Jiříkov, a village in north-eastern Czechia, before Christmas. Others followed in January. Jiříkov Mayor Barbora Šišková told Euractiv Czechia that when she raised the issue publicly, she discovered other cases in other municipalities. The shipment, from the German company ROTH International, labelled as plastic waste, was destined for the Czech company Piroplastik, which had claimed to be processing plastic materials. On inspection, however, it turned out to be fibreglass - almost impossible to recycle - raising suspicions of illegal dumping. Authorities have seized five trucks on site, and local officials and police continue to investigate. Meanwhile, inspectors from the Czech Environmental Inspectorate are coordinating efforts with German authorities to return the waste to its source. “The waste demonstrably comes from Germany,” Czech Environment Ministry spokeswoman Veronika Krejčí confirmed to Euractiv Czechia. Euractiv Czechia contacted the German company for comment but did not receive a reply. Meanwhile, the mayor is furious that richer countries are exporting such waste to poorer ones and vows to fight the issue at the European level. “It does not only concern us, but it is a pan-European problem,” she added.

Byers SR100 

‘Pool House,’ United Kingdom,

Paul McCarthy - White Snow Head, 2012