The EU-funded REFRESH project has released promising results from its initial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the project’s processes for recycling glass fibre and carbon fibre reinforced composites from end-of-life (EoL) wind turbine blades.
The analysis highlights significant environmental benefits for the REFRESH mechanical recycling and thermal recycling processes compared to traditional disposal methods, including a reduction in climate change impacts of >70% for the thermal processes compared to incineration.
EuCIA leads the project’s communication and dissemination activities, collaborating with the 10 partners: ACCIONA (Spain), CETMA (Italy), CIRCE (Spain), Enecolab Srl (Italy), ETAT9 (France), Gees Recycling (Italy), Gjenkraft AS (Norway), MTB (France), RINA (Italy), and TECNALIA (Spain).
A groundbreaking study
The evaluation of advanced recycling techniques, including microwave-assisted pyrolysis, remain underexplored in existing environmental assessments. This study, based on high-quality primary and experimental data sourced from the project’s partners, provides a comprehensive and data-driven assessment of innovative recycling processes for composites derived from EoL blades, a topic of increasing importance in the transition to a circular economy.
Conducted by RINA in the initial phase of the project, the analysis followed the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards and covered the project’s three main recycling processes: mechanical recycling, and two thermal processes – pyrolysis, and microwave-assisted pyrolysis (MW-pyrolysis).
Next steps
This initial LCA analysis indicates that the REFRESH recycling processes have the potential to significantly reduce environmental impacts compared to traditional disposal methods. The substantial environmental benefits of using recycled materials further support the project’s goals of promoting circular economy practices and reducing reliance on virgin materials.
The next steps involve optimising the processes, assessing the final use of the recycled materials, and conducting an economic and social assessment to maximise the project’s sustainability potential.
Read the press release.
