DecomBlades
DecomBlades was an innovative project, where partners from the wind industry, recycling business, and research institutions collaborated to tackle the challenge of recycling of decommissioned wind turbine blades.
In 2023, DecomBlades proved the concept of recovering glass fibres through pyrolysis from old wind turbine blades and remelting it into new fibres is an environmentally viable and scalable solution. The proved pyrolysis-remelting-value-chain can help solve the wind industry's recycling challenge, as it unlocks true circularity for wind turbine blades and can off-take the quantity of blades for the years to come.
The partners in the DecomBlades project are MAKEEN Energy, Energy Cluster Denmark, Ørsted, LM Wind Power, Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, FLSmidth, HJ Hansen Recycling, University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and Technical University of Denmark (DTU), and funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.
Tackling the blade challenge
For over 20 years, there has been a search for a sustainable way to dispose of the decommissioned wind turbine blades. When a wind turbine has reached the end of its lifetime and gets taken down, what do we do with the materials? Can we recycle the blades, offering a more sustainable solution than available today? To solve this challenge, the DecomBlades project was founded.
Cracking the code with pyrolysis
MAKEEN Energy established the test facilities for treatment of the blade material, drawing upon the expertise with pyrolysis technology from our other business areas.
The process that the team developed involves feeding old wind turbine blades to the continuous processing pyrolysis reactor. Before the material is run through the reactor, the blades are cut and shredded finely. The process separates the material in gas, oil, and solids. The solids consist of glass fibre coated in a layer of black carbon that is then post-processed to produce cleaned fibre. These are then milled to produce a fine powder, and any impurities such as metal are sorted out. This powder can then be remelted into new glass fibre and used for the next generation of wind turbine blades. The process does not degrade the quality of the fibres, meaning that it is a process that can be repeated indefinitely.
At first attempt, we have succeeded in recovering and processing glass fibre that is suitable for inclusion in the raw material mix on a par with virgin material in the extremely sensitive glass fibre production process. We have achieved this important milestone not at a laboratory scale but at an industrial level. The process has real commercial prospects. It’s incredibly exciting to have reached this point.
Proving the concept
A large-scale trial started in early 2023 with selecting the blades that would be recycled in this proof of concept, where first step was getting cut up into panels. The next steps followed throughout the year, with shredding, pyrolysis, milling, and sorting out impurities at various locations around Denmark and Germany.
In September 2023, the team were finally able to present more than 1 tons of finely milled and purified glass fibre material at the Norwegian factory of 3B-Fibreglass. As one of the world’s leading glass fibre manufacturers, 3B-Fibreglass had agreed to trial the remelting of the recovered glass fibres intro new high-quality glass fibres with remelted content. The trial turned out to be a clear success, and the glass fibre produced from our team’s input material was just as high quality as any glass fibre made by traditional means.
This proved that recycling of decommissioned wind turbine blades can be done at a commercial scale, making it a feasible solution for the industry, securing full circularity for the glass fibres from the wind turbine blades.
Old wind turbine blades
Blade shredding and transport
Pyrolysis
Co-processing
New and recycled wind turbine blades
Blade-to-blade : Glass fibre circularity
Blade Material Passport
Another great achievement of DecomBlades is the development of a "Blade Material Passport". This specification has been created for recycling partners, who handle the recycling of the wind turbine blades. The passport outlines the high-level composition of the wind turbine blades and provide information on materials' estimated location and quantities. The passport serves as a tool for the recycling industry handling the decommissioned blades.
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