Sustainable Creativity: Overcoming the Challenge of Scale When Repurposing Wind-Turbine Blades

Arabian, K.; Shu, L. H.

doi:10.1115/1.4054632

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

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Circularity: a workflow for reusing waste wind turbine blades

Kio,

Anumba

2024

BEPAM

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PurposeWind energy has developed rapidly becoming a promising source of renewable energy. Although wind energy is described as clean energy, the problem of blade disposal has emerged from decommissioned wind turbines in the renewable energy sector, these blades manufactured from composite materials are almost impossible to recycle.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposed a methodological workflow for an educational approach toward accelerating the transition to a circular economy (CE) through a case study reusing wind turbine blade waste. The participants were undergraduate students. In the quantitative case study approach of students’ coursework, innovative architectural reuse was the basis of the methodology for creatively reusing blade waste. Students reused the blades as building elements.FindingsThe workflow could be beneficial to the renewable energy sector and the architecture, engineering and construction industry. The results show that the impact of creative reuse is positive as it reduces the energy consumed by conventional recycling processes, reduces carbon dioxide-equivalents and preserves the structural properties of the blades.Research limitations/implicationsThe research reported in this study is exploratory and findings may not be generalizable due to the location and limited number of participants in the design process. Also, the empirical data collected were limited to the views and opinions of the students and instructor.Originality/valueThe novel workflow provided evidence at the end of the course that participating students became more interested in CE and were able to think more independently about CE. Creative reuse promotes circularity, reducing virgin material extraction and carbon emissions.

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Circularity: a workflow for reusing waste wind turbine blades

Kio,

Anumba

2024

BEPAM

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A Repurposable Attribute Basis for Identifying Repurposing Opportunities in Decommissioned Products

Hewa Witharanage,

Otto,

et al. 2024

Journal of Mechanical Design

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Repurposing is a decommissioning strategy that enables multiple life cycles for a product or its components. However, repurposing is challenging since it requires finding an alternative use for an existing product. Therefore, a starting point to analyze a product in the context of repurposing is required. We aim to fill this gap by developing a Repurposable Attribute Basis (RAB). We identified and analyzed 69 unique repurposing examples to understand the underlying attributes utilized during the repurposing. When repurposing a product to develop a new one, a common attribute is a quality or characteristic both products have (e.g., material property). A transformer attribute is an action that helps one product to be transformed into the other product (e.g., deform). All analyzed repurposing examples utilized 13 Common Attributes and 15 Transformer Attributes. We discuss the 28 repurposable attributes and present them as the RAB for identifying repurposing opportunities in decommissioned products. The implications of the basis on creativity-based and data-driven methods for identifying repurposing opportunities are discussed using two example applications. The RAB appears useful for idea generation as a creativity stimulus and as a prompt modifier when using Large Language Models. The RAB could serve as a foundation, increasing the understanding and utilization of repurposing as a decommissioning strategy. Keywords: repurposing, sustainability, end-of-life, multiple life cycle products, design theory and methodology

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