EuCIA joined its partners in the REFRESH wind turbine blade recycling project in Zaragoza, Spain, on 26-27 June. This General Assembly, marking the 30th month of the project, was hosted by CIRCE.
REFRESH is developing a smart, circular solution for decommissioned wind turbine blades, covering the whole value chain from blade downsizing (cutting, shredding and materials sorting), to recycling technologies, to new products incorporating secondary materials. The project is now reaching a major milestone, where the upscaled mechanical and thermal recycling lines are being installed and tested ready to start operations. Work continues on the design and prototyping of a variety of new products incorporating high amounts of secondary materials for applications in wind energy and construction. Development of the blockchain traceability platform covering the whole value chain is also progressing well, along with the decision-making tool that will determine the optimal solution for each blade. The findings of life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC) and social LCA (sLCA) analyses for the REFRESH value chain will be integrated into the digital platform to enable informed decision-making that fosters environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
Work package updates at the REFRESH General Assembly.
As leader of the REFRESH work package focused on dissemination, communication and exploitation, EuCIA is looking forward to sharing the projects achievements over the coming months. Later this year, working in collaboration with project coordinator RINA, we will be organising the first REFRESH workshop and inviting stakeholders to join us to learn more about the REFRESH innovations. Watch out for an announcement about this soon.
Partnering in EU-funded projects such as REFRESH provides valuable insights into cutting-edge composites technologies and new circular business models. REFRESH connects us with a team of talented researchers and industry colleagues who are also dedicated to advancing the circularity of composites, and it complements our ongoing work with WindEurope and other industry partners to industrialise solutions for end-of-service blades.
The REFRESH partners are ACCIONA Construccion SA (Spain), CETMA (Italy), CIRCE (Spain), Enecolab Srl (Italy), EuCIA (Belgium), ETAT9 (France), Gees Recycling (Italy), Gjenkraft AS (Norway), MTB (France), RINA (Italy), and TECNALIA (Spain).
Read more about REFRESH and the M30 General Assembly on the REFRESH website.
Read the article Meet the REFRESH partners: EuCIA.
