EoLo-Hubs Aimed at Recycling High Value Materials from Wind Turbine Blades

EoLO-HUBs project to recover materials

EoLO-HUBs project, co-funded by the EU with 10 million euros, has been started by 18 consortium partners from seven countries. The project looks at an innovative sustainable solution to recover high-value composite materials from wind turbine blades by developing a set of advanced recycling technologies.

Wind turbines are made of a combination of various materials, like wood, metals, adhesives, coatings, and fibre-reinforced polymer. The heterogeneity of the fibre-reinforced polymer materials and the strong adhesion between the fibre reinforcement and the polymer matrix with the usual thermoset resins makes recycling of polymeric end of life (EoL) composite challenging. As a rescult, recycling fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) generally comes with the undesirable side-effect of “downgrading”, ending as a raw material for low quality applications.

The said project sets its sights on three areas of development and looks to respond to industry needs. It claims to be a novel process to optimize the dismantling of wind turbine blades. This entails advanced software and tools that pave the way for the identification and separation of the various components of the blade when it comes to be treated. It loks to achieve this through the development of two sustainable technologies: low carbon pyrolysis and green chemistry solvolysis, for the recovery of glass and carbon fibers. Further, the treatment processes are aimed at improving of the properties of recovered fibers. This allows them to be employed as new raw materials in a second life cycle in the automotive, construction and wind energy sectors.

To link the hubs within the EoLo project, a digital platform will also be developed to make knowledge exchange effective. This platform also has an ambition to facilitate formalizing, encouraging circular economy and business agreements that will help replicate the EoLo model beyond the pilot framework.