Researchers on the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) see a practical path forward to the manufacture of bio-derivable wind blades that might be chemically recycled and the components reused, ending the practice of old blades winding up in landfills at the tip of their useful life.
The findings are published in the brand new issue of the journal Science. The brand new resin, which is manufactured from materials produced using bio-derivable resources, performs on par with the present industry standard of blades produced from a thermoset resin and outperforms certain thermoplastic resins intended to be recyclable.
The researchers built a prototype 9-meter blade to reveal the manufacturability of an NREL-developed biomass-derivable resin nicknamed PECAN. The acronym stands for PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network, and the manufacturing process dovetails with current methods. Under existing technology, wind blades last about 20 years, and afterward they might be mechanically recycled reminiscent of shredded to be used as concrete filler. PECAN marks a step forward due to the power to recycle the blades using mild chemical processes.
The chemical recycling process allows the components of the blades to be recaptured and reused time and again, allowing the remanufacture of the identical product, in response to Ryan Clarke, a postdoctoral researcher at NREL and first creator of the brand new paper. “It is really a limitless approach if it’s done right.”
He said the chemical process was capable of completely break down the prototype blade in six hours.
The paper, “Manufacture and testing of biomass-derivable thermosets for wind blade recycling,” involved work from investigators at five NREL research hubs, including the National Wind Technology Center and the BOTTLE Consortium. The researchers demonstrated an end-of-life strategy for the PECAN blades and proposed recovery and reuse strategies for every component.
“The PECAN method for developing recyclable wind turbine blades is a critically essential step in our efforts to foster a circular economy for energy materials,” said Johney Green, NREL’s associate laboratory director for Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences.
The research into the PECAN resin began with the tip. The scientists desired to make a wind blade that might be recyclable and started experimenting with what feedstock they might use to realize that goal. The resin they developed using bio-derivable sugars provided a counterpoint to the traditional notion that a blade designed to be recyclable won’t perform as well.
“Simply because something is bio-derivable or recyclable doesn’t mean it may be worse,” said Nic Rorrer, one in every of the 2 corresponding authors of the Science paper. He said one concern others have had about all these materials is that the blade could be subject to greater “creep,” which is when the blade loses its shape and deforms over time. “It really challenges this evolving notion in the sector of polymer science, that you could’t use recyclable materials because they’ll underperform or creep an excessive amount of.”
Composites produced from the PECAN resin held their shape, withstood accelerated weatherization validation, and might be made inside a timeframe just like the prevailing cure cycle for the way wind turbine blades are currently manufactured.
While wind blades can measure the length of a football field, the scale of the prototype provided proof of the method.
“Nine meters is a scale that we were capable of reveal the entire same manufacturing processes that may be used on the 60-, 80-, 100-meter blade scale,” said Robynne Murray, the second corresponding creator.
The opposite coauthors, all from NREL, are Erik Rognerud, Allen Puente-Urbina, David Barnes, Paul Murdy, Michael McGraw, Jimmy Newkirk, Ryan Beach, Jacob Wrubel, Levi Hamernik, Katherine Chism, Andrea Baer, and Gregg Beckham.
The U.S. Department of Energy jointly funded the research through its Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office and Bioenergy Technologies Office and their support of the BOTTLE Consortium. Additional research and funding will allow the investigators to construct larger blades and to explore more bio-derived formulations.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.
