Lessons learned from the sustainable recycling process of a wind blade made with a new thermoplastic resin

Abstract

The use of thermoplastic resins instead of thermoset ones in wind turbine blade manufacturing is being investigated and validated in a global scale due to some theoretical improvements such as costs saving during production, shorter cycle’s time and a better circular recovery of the raw materials at the End of Life. The initial objective of this paper was to manufacture and test a small wind turbine blade (SWTB) glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (GFRT) resin composites, recycle it, and use the products obtained from the recycling process (fibers and resin) to remanufacture a new thermoplastic SWTB. But loss of fibers higher than estimated during the recycling process made to get away from the original aim of testing both blades (1st and 2nd recyclable blades). At least, some lessons learned were obtained to improve future developments. Nevertheless, this study provides an example of how to recycle a small WT blade and to remanufacture it using the same raw materials.