End-of-life wind turbine blades find second life in European REWIND project

European REWIND project demonstrates the potential of decommissioned wind turbine blade as new industrial resources for applications such as electric vehicles and insulation materials.

End-of-life wind turbine blades.

More than 20 square meters of recovered wind turbine blade sections, which is equivalent to the surface area of two family cars, are repurposed through the European REWIND project.

In addition, the consortium has validated a model capable of predicting the mechanical behavior of recovered materials with more than 90% accuracy.

Background reading: REWIND project to recycle and repurpose wind turbines

Full value chain involved: Collaboration with multiple experts
 

The project brings together research and technology centers, universities, industrial companies, and sector associations from across Europe to develop practical solutions across the full value chain of end-of-life wind turbine blades.
 

• SUEZ: Develops and validates safe and efficient dismantling technologies, implements advanced non-destructive material identification methods that support the classification, reuse and recycling of composite materials
• AIMPLAS: Develops mechanical pre-treatment, material separation, catalytic pyrolysis and solvolysis processes to maximize resin recovery while preserving fiber quality
• TEKNIKER: Advances cutting optimization software and long-fiber delamination technologies capable of producing continuous composite tapes, opening up new possibilities for the direct reuse of large blade sections
• ALKE: Demonstrates the direct reuse of blade components by integrating repurposed composite panels into electric vehicle cargo compartments
• BCIRCULAR: Scales up its pyrolysis technology and integrates new catalytic systems that will enable the production of high-quality recycled fibers for industrial applications
• R-Nano: Characterizes and improves the performance of recovered fibers through advanced surface analysis and innovative sizing strategies
• Miljøskærm: Develops thermal insulation materials made from recycled glass fibers, combining strong thermal and acoustic performance with structures designed to minimize biological activity
• DITF: Produces innovative unidirectional fabrics based on recycled glass fiber yarns for future composite applications
• Composite Patch: Defines performance requirements and assessing the environmental and economic sustainability of recycled composite repair solutions
   

Scaling up developed technologies

REWIND has successfully achieved its first two technical milestones. The first, led by SUEZ, ensured the availability of undamaged and dismantled end-of-life wind turbine blades for repurposing and recycling activities.

Another, led by IPC, validated a material model designed to predict the residual mechanical properties of damaged end-of-life wind turbine blade components. The model demonstrated excellent accuracy, with less than a 10% deviation between simulated results and the actual mechanical behavior of the tested blade sections.

The consortium will now focus on scaling up the developed technologies, validating industrial demonstrators and accelerating the market uptake of circular solutions for wind turbine composites.