Recycling waste wind turbine blades remains one of the biggest challenges in the wind energy sector, especially for the UK who is a global leader in offshore wind. This challenge becomes even more urgent now with only 7 years to go before meeting the wind industry’s ambitious target of producing zero waste wind power by 2030. Unfortunately, there is no effective recycling method available, and the waste blades have to go into landfill or being incinerated causing environmental issues and wasting valuable resources. In this project, I will solve this urgent challenge by developing a new method of recycling waste wind blades for making high value products like SCM, railway sleepers, and particle boards. This method will directly impact wind energy, by enhancing the sustainability of wind power while decarbonising industrial products. More importantly, this solution will be extended to other industries like aviation, automobile, and electronics, which are facing the same challenge of recycling fibre glass composite wastes.

This work is supported by a £1.5MN UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (PI: Chao Wu), in collaboration with 9 industrial partners including LM Wind Power, Belfour Beaty, Costain, Cemex, Longworth, Gurit, Composites UK, Mott MacDonald, and NCC. 

The group has 3 PhD scholarships and 4 Postdoctoral positions available in this project. Students and Researchers with expertise in cement chemistry, supplementary cementitious material, geopolymer, thermal dynamics modelling, life cycle analysis and cost analysis are encouraged to apply. Please find out more about the opportunities and how to apply. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Above figure shows the recycling framework, in which the decommissioned wind turbine blades are turned into powder, which is processed through a series of mechanical and chemical treatments. Then this powder is used to replace cement in concrete which is then used for the construction of wind turbine foundation. This recycling framework can be used in many other industries like marine, airplane, automobile, construction and electronic industries which are facing the same challenge of recycling waste fibreglass composites. 

Above figure shows our industrial collaborators including Composites UK, LM Wind Power, Mott Macdonald, Balfour Beatty, National Composites Centre, Cemex, Costain, Longworth, Gurit