ZEBRA readies first recyclable wind turbine blade prototype
The ZEBRA (Zero wastE Blade ReseArch) consortium has announced progress in the industry’s transition to a circular economy with the first prototype of its 100% recyclable wind turbine blade.
The 62m blade was made by LM Wind Power, using Arkema’s Elium resin, a thermoplastic resin well known for its recyclable properties together with glass fabrics from Owens Corning.
Launched in September 2020, the ZEBRA (Zero wastE Blade ReseArch) project is a unique partnership led by French research centre IRT Jules Verne and brings together industrial companies including Arkema, Canoe, Engie, LM Wind Power, Owens Corning and Suez. Its purpose is to demonstrate the technical, economic, and environmental relevance of thermoplastic wind turbine blades on a full scale, with an eco-design approach to facilitate recycling.
Within the project, LM Wind Power has designed and built the world’s largest thermoplastic blade at its Ponferrada plant in Spain. The composite components can be recycled by chemical recycling allowing depolymerisation of the resin, separation of the fiber and recovery of a new virgin quality resin and the high modulus glass ready to be reused, closing the loop.
Owens Corning is to find solutions for fiberglass recycling through remelting or reusing in various applications. In addition to material testing and process trials, the companies have also made progress on developing and optimising the manufacturing process through automation, to reduce energy consumption and waste from production.
LM Wind Power will now start full-scale structural lifetime testing at its Test and Validation Centre in Denmark, to verify the performance of the composite material used in making the blade and its feasibility for future sustainable blade production. Once these tests are finished, the end of life recycling methods will also be validated. The next steps are the recycling of production waste, the dismantling and recycling of this first blade and the analysis of the test results.
