Recycling of Wind Turbine Blades into Microfiber Using Plasma Technology

Abstract

As the industry develops and energy demand increases, wind turbines are increasingly being used to generate electricity, resulting in an increasing number of obsolete turbine blades that need to be properly recycled or used as a secondary raw material in other industries. The authors of this work propose an innovative technology not yet studied in the literature, where the wind turbine blades are mechanically shredded and micrometric fibers are formed from the obtained powder using plasma technologies. As shown by SEM and EDS studies, the powder is composed of irregularly shaped microgranules and the carbon content in the obtained fiber is lower by up to seven times compared with the original powder. Meanwhile, the chromatographic studies show that no hazardous to the environment gases are formed during the fiber production. It is worth mentioning that this fiber formation technology can be one of the additional methods for recycling wind turbine blades, and the obtained fiber can be used as a secondary raw material in the production of catalysts, construction materials, etc.