2022 May, 3rd. The first wind turbines were installed in the early 2000s and now they are reaching the end of their useful lives. Over the next decade, many of these decommissioned wind turbine blades will be thrown away in landfills. Is it possible to recycle them when they reach the end of their lifespan?
As CarbonGreen Consortium, today we held a meeting in person to see the start of the process, how the wind blades are extracted. The story begins with wind blades at the end of their operational life. These are dismantled to be transported to the recycling facilities. Before transferring them, they are cut to facilitate their transport since they are pieces of thousands of kilos.
Our team could witness how these pieces were moved and taken to the transport ship. The wind turbine blades are moved from Lelystad in The Netherlands to the industrial site the process of recycling takes place. The CarbonGreen project is bringing a new solution able to transform the wind turbine blades into products or intermediates. The technology can process all kinds of material streams. In contrast to current methods the process only uses electricity and has no chemical consumption, other than some additives, ultimately producing basic valuable compounds. Finally, these CarbonGreen products can be recycled again, ensuring circularity and zero waste.
“Thanks to our innovations, we can support the wind industry in its ambitious goals towards a circular value chain” – says Mr. Ludwin Daal, the director of the project.