The market for fan blade recycling is heating up, and new processes and materials for recycling are emerging endlessly

Abstract from China Energy News

    Recently, researchers at Michigan State University announced the launch of the latest fully recyclable fan blade composite material, which can be processed into soft candy after recycling. European energy company EnelGreenPower has announced a partnership with material manufacturer ACTBlade to produce and test wind turbine blades made of special fabrics.

    The global wind power installed capacity has entered a period of rapid growth, and many countries that have the earliest large-scale development of wind power have ushered in the tide of fan scrapping, and the major fan manufacturers are constantly increasing the fan blade recycling business to open up the "last kilometer" of the wind power low-carbon road.

The demand for blade recycling is increasing

    At present, the fan blades are often made of glass fiber composite materials. Data show that the average recovery rate of fan blades is 85% to 90%, and some composite materials cannot be recycled. At the same time, the technical process of blade recycling is complex, the cost is relatively high, and there is no commercial recycling method. The traditional practice is that decommissioned fan blades are generally only used as garbage, landfill and incineration.
    At the same time, the amount of fan blade scrap worldwide is growing at a high speed. According to data released by WindEurope, the European wind industry association, in the next five years, 14,000 wind turbine blades are expected to need to be recycled in Europe.

    In China, the total amount of waste fan blades can not be underestimated. According to the statistics of the wind Energy Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, in 2020, China''s decommissioned fan blades generated about 900 tons of composite solid waste; It is expected to approach 5,800 tonnes by 2025 and could even reach 74,000 tonnes by 2028. Since the beginning of this year, many departments in China have issued relevant policy guidance documents, repeatedly emphasizing that the recycling of new solid waste such as fan blades will be promoted.
    The Global Wind Energy Council has also publicly stated that by 2030, the number of wind turbine blades discarded worldwide could more than double from the current level.

Continuous innovation in materials and processes

    In the face of the huge demand for blade recycling, fan manufacturers in various countries are showing their talents. In August, researchers at Michigan State University in the United States announced the launch of a new material that can be used to make wind turbine blades, which is composed of plant-derived polymers and synthetic materials. After the service life of this leaf material expires, it can be completely decomposed and recycled, and the recycled material can even be used to produce sports drinks, soft candies and so on after special processes.

    ACTBlade company takes a new approach, using the fabric process used in the sailing industry to replace the glass fiber used in the traditional fan blade, which can not only effectively reduce the weight of the blade, but also increase the wind catching capacity of the blade and enhance the power generation capacity of the fan. The company said that compared with the traditional blade production method, the use of this method is expected to reduce production costs by 17%. It is reported that EnelGreenPower has installed three of the new blades for testing.
    In addition to material innovation, there are also a number of companies in the treatment process. In July, Goldwind said it completed a 3D printed landscape flower bed in its carbon-neutral smart park, using pulverized particles from the blades of retired wind turbines. The utilization rate of solid waste of finished flower beds can reach more than 30%. In addition, wind turbine manufacturers such as Vestas and General Electric have also announced that they will build "zero waste fans" to maximize the value of materials.
Commercial recycling remains a challenge

    The path of fan blade recycling continues to expand, and the recycling technology continues to mature, but it is not easy to achieve large-scale and commercial recovery of fan blade.
    An industry insider who did not want to be named told reporters that the domestic wind power industry is actively exploring the path of blade recycling technology, the current more mainstream approach is to break the blade as building materials or packaging materials, or decompose it chemically. However, from the practical operation point of view, these two processing methods can not meet the huge demand for blade retirement, and the economy is relatively poor, and it can not be commercialized and applied.
    At the same time, the larger blade size brought by the trend of larger fan also brings new challenges to blade recycling. In recent years, the length and weight of fan blades have been increasing, from 30 meters and 40 meters before to more than 100 meters now, and the difficulty of blade transportation has been increasing.
    For the prospects of the fan blade recycling market, the above industry insiders believe that the barriers between industries should be broken as soon as possible, to achieve cooperation between wind power and other industries, and should increase investment in research and innovation.

Win Power forward the news for information,not representing approval for some certain opinions in the passage.