Structural Analysis of a Roof Extracted from a Wind Turbine Blade

Gentry, T. Russell; Al-Haddad, Tristan; Bank, Lawrence C.; Arias, Franco R.; Nagle, Angela; Leahy, Paul

doi:10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000440

Cited by 28 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…If a component or product is used for another function, then it would be considered repurposing. For example, using a turbine blade as a blade again would be reuse, whereas using (a section of) a blade to construct a bridge would constitute repurposing (see, e.g., [47,113,167,168]).…”

Section: Component Reuse and Repurposingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

Velenturf

2021

Energies

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Circular economy and renewable energy infrastructure such as offshore wind farms are often assumed to be developed in synergy as part of sustainable transitions. Offshore wind is among the preferred technologies for low-carbon energy. Deployment is forecast to accelerate over ten times faster than onshore wind between 2021 and 2025, while the first generation of offshore wind turbines is about to be decommissioned. However, the growing scale of offshore wind brings new sustainability challenges. Many of the challenges are circular economy-related, such as increasing resource exploitation and competition and underdeveloped end-of-use solutions for decommissioned components and materials. However, circular economy is not yet commonly and systematically applied to offshore wind. Circular economy is a whole system approach aiming to make better use of products, components and materials throughout their consecutive lifecycles. The purpose of this study is to enable the integration of a sustainable circular economy into the design, development, operation and end-of-use management of offshore wind infrastructure. This will require a holistic overview of potential circular economy strategies that apply to offshore wind, because focus on no, or a subset of, circular solutions would open the sector to the risk of unintended consequences, such as replacing carbon impacts with water pollution, and short-term private cost savings with long-term bills for taxpayers. This study starts with a systematic review of circular economy and wind literature as a basis for the coproduction of a framework to embed a sustainable circular economy throughout the lifecycle of offshore wind energy infrastructure, resulting in eighteen strategies: design for circular economy, data and information, recertification, dematerialisation, waste prevention, modularisation, maintenance and repair, reuse and repurpose, refurbish and remanufacturing, lifetime extension, repowering, decommissioning, site recovery, disassembly, recycling, energy recovery, landfill and re-mining. An initial baseline review for each strategy is included. The application and transferability of the framework to other energy sectors, such as oil and gas and onshore wind, are discussed. This article concludes with an agenda for research and innovation and actions to take by industry and government.

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Section: Component Reuse and Repurposingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

Velenturf

2021

Energies

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“…Technologies for processing EOL turbine blades into marketready materials and products exist, but most such technologies remain in lab-scale or pilot-scale development and very few have been commercialized in the United States (Correia et al, 2011;Schmid et al, 2020). The current lack of commercial-scale EOL options has led to turbine blades being landfilled, incinerated (Ramirez-Tejeda et al, 2017), reused in structural applications (Bank et al, 2018;Gentry et al, 2020), and occasionally stored intact at wind power plants (Martin, 2020). Increasing material circularity in the wind turbine blade supply chain thus requires identifying technologically, economically, and environmentally viable EOL technologies that can convert wind turbine blades into materials or products that remain in use, either within the wind turbine supply chain or other supply chains.…”

Section: Case Study Scope Data and Key Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Circular Economy Lifecycle Assessment and Visualization Framework: A Case Study of Wind Blade Circularity in Texas

et al. 2021

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Moving the current linear economy toward circularity is expected to have environmental, economic, and social impacts. Various modeling methods, including economic input-output modeling, life cycle assessment, agent-based modeling, and system dynamics, have been used to examine circular supply chains and analyze their impacts. This work describes the newly developed Circular Economy Lifecycle Assessment and Visualization (CELAVI) framework, which is designed to model how the impacts of supply chains might change as circularity increases. We first establish the framework with a discussion of modeling capabilities that are needed to capture circularity transitions; these capabilities are based on the fact that supply chains moving toward circularity are dynamic and therefore not at steady state, may encompass multiple industrial sectors or other interdependent supply chains and occupy a large spatial area. To demonstrate the capabilities of CELAVI, we present a case study on end-of-life wind turbine blades in the U.S. state of Texas. Our findings show that depending on exact process costs and transportation distances, mechanical recycling could lead to 69% or more of end-of-life turbine blade mass being kept in circulation rather than being landfilled, with only a 7.1% increase in global warming potential over the linear supply chain. We discuss next steps for framework development.

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“…La Queen's University of Belfast ha sviluppato un progetto dove le pale eoliche sono state utilizzate come membri strutturali per un ponte pedonale 24 . Da un'altra parte, Gentry et al, hanno svolto un progetto di "Housing" con le pale eoliche, concernente l'utilizzo dei pannelli per realizzare piattaforme di sollevamento, tetti, porte e finestre, ideale per case nei paesi in via di sviluppo in cui le condizioni di vita sono ancora precarie 25 .…”

Section: Progetti DI Recuperounclassified

Prospettive di fine vita dei parchi eolici (wind farms) nelle politiche dell'economia circolare

Poviña¹

2021

Preprint

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L’energia eolica negli ultimi anni ha avuto un forte incremento e la dismissione degli impianti eolici già esistenti sta suscitando molto interesse sul possibile recupero delle risorse. Una turbina eolica ha una durata media di vita tra 20-25 anni, e oggi 34,000 turbine in Europa hanno 15 anni o più. Una stima di 14,000 pale potrebbe essere disattivata entro il 2023, un equivalente tra 40,000 e 60,000 tonnellate. Pertanto, un mercato potenziale per le turbine eoliche fuori uso e i loro prodotti recuperati deve essere stabilito in Europa. Circa l’85-90% della massa totale delle turbine eoliche può essere riciclata. Il problema principale rimane sulle pale, che sono realizzate in materiale polimerico rinforzato con fibre, i cui metodi di riciclaggio non sono tecnologicamente sviluppati. La situazione di fine vita di un parco eolico richiede una decisione tra differenti possibili progetti sostenibili per l’medio ambiente. La decisione finale sarà influenzata da diversi fattori.

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Structural Analysis of a Roof Extracted from a Wind Turbine Blade

Cited by 28 publications

References 16 publications

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

The Circular Economy Lifecycle Assessment and Visualization Framework: A Case Study of Wind Blade Circularity in Texas

Prospettive di fine vita dei parchi eolici (wind farms) nelle politiche dell'economia circolare

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