Recycling solid residues recovered from glass fibre-reinforced composites – A review applied to wind turbine blade materials

Abstract

For the sustainable development of modern societies, optimized life cycle management of any technologies must be considered, from their development and implementation to their end of life (EoL). This is of main concern for the wind energy sector. Rapidly growing, this industrial sector will have to face large amount of future wind turbine (WT) blades coming to EoL. Among the EoL solutions available for WT blades, i.e. reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, incineration or disposal, this literature review focuses on recycling and particularly the recycling of shredded composite (SC) materials and recovered glass fibre (GF) into new polymer composite. WT blades are mainly made of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) using thermosetting resins. Shredding this material and recovering GF are possible recycling solutions for WT blade. Based on a detailed literature review, the formulations of new composites elaborated with the residues are presented in a novel standardized way based on weight fractions. The mechanical properties of the composite manufactured are thereafter compared and discussed.

Directed Motility of Hygroresponsive Biomimetic Actuators

“…The GFs (Figure 1 e) were selected as fl exible reinforcing elements to build a network with remarkably high tensile strength and excellent handling and knotting characteristics. [33][34][35] AG was used as a soft hydrogel matrix that is capable of rapidly exchanging water with the surroundings to induce deformation by anisotropic swelling. [36][37][38][39][40][41] The GFs were oriented as single nets of longitudinal (LGF@AG), transverse (TGF@AG), and oblique (OGF@AG) fi bers, or as double nets of skewed (SGF@AG) and perpendicular (PGF@AG) fi bers (the orientation is given relative to the long axis of the fi lm, L ; Figure 1 g).…”

A review on the recycling of waste carbon fibre/glass fibre-reinforced composites: fibre recovery, properties and life-cycle analysis

“…Wind energy is a widely-used renewable energy source [74], for which GFs make an important material contribution to wind turbine manufacturing [3,5,75]. In general, the life cycle of an individual wind turbine only lasts from 20 to 25 years [76].…”

Processing of Cellulose Using Ionic Liquids

“…Fiber‐reinforced plastics are important materials for lightweight construction and progressively replace traditional materials. Due to an increased environmental awareness and increasingly restrictive legislative rules, the demand for recyclable and sustainable composites strongly increased over the last few years. Due to their good mechanical properties and availability, cellulose fibers are intensively used in bio composites and natural fiber reinforced plastics (NFRP) .…”