EnergyLoop responds to the challenge of recycling wind turbine blades

The company’s managing director, Federico Sanmartín, spoke in depth about the importance of innovation and technology in tackling this challenge.

One of the presentations at the VI Ecoforum was given by Federico Sanmartín, managing director of EnergyLoop, a company created in 2022 by FCC Ámbito (a subsidiary of FCC Servicios Medio Ambiente specialising in integrated waste management) and Perseo Venture Builder ( Iberdrola‘s start-up accelerator), with the aim of leading the reuse and recycling of wind turbine blades in Spain and Portugal.

A need ‘without a solution at the industrial level today, with landfill being the only current solution’, as the speaker acknowledged.

Context

As a starting point, the expert explained that a large part of the wind farms from the late 1990s and early 2000s are at the end of their useful life, which means that they need to be repowered.

The forecast is that by 2025 there will be 155 installations with almost 4,200 wind turbines reaching 25 years of life, which means more than 30,000 tonnes of wind blades .

In 2030, there will be 173,000 tonnes of blades older than 20 years in operation, 79,500 of them older than 25 years, although conservative analyses estimate an average of 15,000 tonnes per year of wind blades to be treated.

‘EnergyLoop was created to respond to the challenges of the wind energy industry by driving the circular economy,’ he said. The ultimate goal is the recovery of wind turbine blade components for reuse in sectors such as energy, aerospace, automotive, textile, ceramics, chemical or construction, achieving: ‘the reuse and recycling of blades, mitigating the carbon footprint of the wind industry, Green Jobs and a circular economy’.

The blade, a complex structure

However, according to Sanmartín,a shovel is a complex, multi-layered, highly resistant and durable structure. A series of advantages that make it difficult to recycle, as it is mainly made up of fibreglass and composites.

One handicap is that composites are difficult to treat. The expert explained that during the manufacture of a wind turbine blade, numerous layers of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) are superimposed along the entire length of the profile as a structural element.

The thickness varies depending on the area of the blade. The assembly is solidified by infiltrating the resin under vacuum through all the layers. And as the blade size increases, the reinforcement of the most fatigue-prone areas with carbon fibre polymer (CFRP) and other structural elements is increased.

So what is the problem? The resins used are thermosetting, so that the reversal of the transformation, which would allow the fibres to be recovered with the highest possible integrity, is very complex.

Key aspects of blade management

Sanmartín also emphasised three key aspects that must be taken into account in the management of shovels.

-Regulations

The first is the regulations. The head of EnergyLoop stressed that the traditional management of this type of waste is its disposal in landfill, which is why it is ‘essential to ban it in order to move towards a model based on the circular economy’.

Furthermore, the coding of wind turbine blade waste varies depending on the current managers, which ‘makes a unified management model difficult’.

He also commented that there are currently no specialised facilities that can offer complete recovery of blades. Despite this, many operations are classified as R (recovery), which is not real.

– Preliminary work at the farm and transport to treatment

Wind farms are often located in protected areas with very complex access, which ‘limits the possible pre-treatment operations’.

In some cases, the blades are reduced in size to facilitate their transport, which is a conditioning factor for certain future uses, he said.

The field work is accompanied by additional measures for the cleaning and restoration of the land where the work has been carried out.

In view of the above, Sanmartín believes that ‘the choice of an expert manager is key, as well as the prior planning of the works to minimise the impact’.

-Características del tratamiento y la valorización

Para empezar este subapartado, el especialista ha señalado que existe una gran variedad de tipologías, geometrías y composición de palas de aerogeneradores motivada por su antigüedad, por la diversidad de fabricantes, por los avances tecnológicos y por la evolución de los procesos de manejo y obtención de materias.

Ha esgrimido que el tratamiento debe estar «alineado con la economía circular, buscando retener la mayor parte del valor del producto o de sus materiales en cada línea de proceso».

Al mismo tiempo, ve fundamental obtener un grado de homogeneidad significativo, para integrarse en cualquier proceso de producción, al igual que deben haber diversas salidas y deben existir «múltiples alternativas para obtener la máxima valorización de los componentes y materiales».

«Un problema importante es que el precio de la fibra de vidrio virgen es barato, lo que actúa como barrera a la fibra reciclada», ha continuado.

EnergyLoop project in Navarra

Sanmartín has announced that EnergyLoop is finalising the construction of an industrial wind blade recycling plant in the town of Cortes (Navarra). The area set up for the reception and collection of blades is now available.

The recycling plant has the capacity to process 10,000 t/year of wind turbine blades.

After the treatment of the blades, a secondary raw material is obtained (end of waste status). ‘The energy consumed in the recycling operation is 100% renewable,’ he said.

He insisted that the process ‘guarantees at all times, through its own system, the traceability of the waste from the wind farm to its final destination’.

The business model envisaged allows for the extension of the activity to other elements of the wind turbine, he added.

Sectors that can benefit

Sanmartín has launched a positive message, which is that ‘a large number of sectors can be positively affected by the introduction of secondary raw materials from wind blades to reduce costs and/or improve properties’, such as the co-processing sector, the soundproofing sector, automotive applications and construction materials.

Source: levante-emv.com