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.