The EU-funded REFRESH project has achieved a notable milestone by demonstrating how recycled glass fibres from end-of-life wind turbine blades can be used in new blades.
EuCIA leads the REFRESH Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation Work Package. We’re delighted to share this latest achievement by the project consortium, which brings together RINA Consulting (Italy), ACCIONA Construccion (Spain), CETMA (Italy), CIRCE (Spain), Enecolab Srl (Italy), ETAT9 (France), EuCIA (Belgium), Gees Recycling (Italy), Gjenkraft AS (Norway), MTB (France), and TECNALIA (Spain).
Circular solutions for blades
REFRESH is building a smart, circular value chain to improve the recycling of glass fibre reinforced composites from decommissioned blades. Now entering its fourth year, the project is currently scaling up the mechanical and thermal recycling processes developed in the project’s initial phase and focusing on the design of products utilising the recovered materials.
Led by CETMA, this design work includes demonstrating viable applications for the recycled glass fibres obtained from Gjenkraft’s advanced thermal recycling process. In this new study, CETMA and Gjenkraft collaborated with Cormatex and ÉireComposites to convert glass fibres recovered through Gjenkraft’s thermal recycling process into a nonwoven mat which was then employed in a non-structural application of a section of new blade.
“This is one of the few recent examples of a wind turbine blade section that has been manufactured using recycled materials recovered from end-of-life wind turbine blades,” reports Andrea Tinti of CETMA. “This result clearly highlights the strength of collaboration within the REFRESH consortium and the successful construction of a new circular value chain, bringing together partners with complementary expertise from different industrial sectors.”
Learn more about this study in the REFRESH press release.
Recycled glass fibres were used in the manufacture of this 1.0 m x 1.5 m wind turbine blade section. (Picture © CETMA / ÉireComposites.)
The need for a supportive regulatory framework
As many European wind farms approach the end of their projected operational lifetimes, the European wind industry is intensifying its circularity efforts. Scaling up solutions to transform end-of-life blades into valuable resources and products is essential to realising the wind sector’s sustainability goals.
In collaboration with WindEurope, Cefic UP/VE, Epoxy Europe, European Boating Industry (EBI), Glass Fibre Europe, and Cement Europe, EuCIA recently published a joint position paper identifying several regulatory solutions that could enable the deployment and commercialisation of sustainable waste treatment solutions for end-of-life composites. One recommendation is the creation of dedicated waste codes for end-of-life composite materials from decommissioned blades and nacelles, and boats, and exploring the relevance of developing waste codes for other segments.
Learn more in the position paper Circular Economy Act and composites.
