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Dismantling and pre-treatment of wind turbine blades at end-of-life: key stages in efficient recycling of composite materials
Composite materials account for 2% of the total mass of a wind turbine, and the aim of the European EoLO-HUBs project is to deploy large-scale technologies for recycling composites from end-of-life wind turbines.
The Spanish technology center AITIIP, coordinator of the project and drawing on its experience in the aeronautics sector, is working on the pre-treatment and preparation of composites prior to the recycling stage. To prepare these composites, the wind turbine blades must first be cut up and cleaned of the surface treatments they have undergone during manufacture.
More than a year's work has gone into developing a portable automated solution for integrating waterjet cutting. Waterjet cutting is a powerful and versatile industrial process that uses a high-pressure stream of water or a mixture of water and abrasive materials to cut wind turbine blades. The first prototype will be operational this summer.
Blade surfaces are often coated with protective resins, which can hamper the efficiency of composite recycling. AITTIP is working in parallel on different mechanical and chemical surface treatment methods to determine the most effective solution, taking into account its environmental impact. This solution will also be ready for pre-industrial scale-up this summer.
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