According to the researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, the extracted materials can then be reused and the process is virtually waste-free.
Wind turbine blades made from glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate composites can serve for up to 25 years, but after that they typically end up in landfills. The material is recognised as hard-to-break-down and has become a real challenge for the renewable energy industry.
It is estimated that wind turbine blades account for 10 per cent of Europe’s fibre-reinforced composite material waste.
Concerns have been raised that with the increase in renewable facilities, wind turbine blade waste will increase to around two million tonnes globally by 2050. With many countries banning composite materials from their landfills, recycling the used wind turbine blades becomes a challenge that researchers around the world are trying to solve.
“More and more countries have been committing to...