Alejandro Fresneda.

REFRESH partners CIRCE and Gjenkraft participated in the European Wind Blade Recycling Summit in Copenhagen on 12-13 June. Here they share some of their highlights from the event.

Looking to the future

In the REFRESH project CIRCE is developing two alternative energy-efficient thermochemical routes for the valorisation of wind blade waste. Alejandro Fresneda gave a presentation about CIRCE’s microwave-assisted technologies on the second day of the conference. These are his takeaways from the summit.

“Wind blade recycling technology is here, and various developments are currently taking place to transform dismantled wind blade composites into reclaimed fibres and upcycled products. The recycling industry demands that market and uptakers must specify the required properties on the products in order to match the most suitable recycling technology.”

“The sector is lacking of a good traceability and knowledge of the materials and components of the oldest wind blade generations. But the sector is committing to keep on with the development of materials passport and digital passport of the new generation of blades to ensure the traceability of components in the production of blades, in order to enhance their recovery at the end of their useful life.”

“The LCA assessment of recycling technologies and routes must account the whole life cycle of wind blade composites, from dismantling to the upcycling of products, to ensure the positive impact of the wind blade recycling sector.”

“REFRESH project works to develop feasible mechanical recycling routes to solve the environmental issue in the most positive short-term way. But we are also looking to the future of blade recycling by developing innovative chemical and thermo-chemical recycling routes to enhance the upcycling of composite organic matrices and establishing novel value chains for recycled thermoset plastics.”

Great progress

Marcin Rusin.

In REFRESH, Gjenkraft will design and deploy an upgrade to its pilot plant to recycle the composite materials from wind blades.

Gjenkraft was a co-sponsor of the summit, alongside Kingo Wind. On the first day of the summit Gjenkraft CEO Marcin Rusin announced a partnership with Kingo Wind resulting in ReComp Nordic, a Danish company that recycles wind turbines on an industrial scale.

“The conference was an amazing opportunity to meet many interesting representatives from the energy sector, including those involved in composite waste recycling. It was amazing to see what great progress has been made in this area in the four years since Gjenkraft was established with a mission for a greener future.”

“The entire day was filled with interesting presentations by industry leaders and innovators. We learned about solutions developed by fellow industry professionals and their perspective on the problem of recycling wind turbines. The second day was packed with even more engaging presentations and discussions. We had the opportunity to give a presentation on the challenges that the turbine recycling industry is facing and how Gjenkraft together with Kingo Wind are working to address them.”

“It was inspiring to connect with many companies and partners, current and new, including Continuum, Composite Recycling, CIRCE, Carbon Rivers, Equinor, Fred. Olsen Renewables, Marius Pedersen A/S, Siemens Gamesa, Statkraft, Vattenfall, WACKER and many more!”

“Let’s make wind turbine blade recycling work for our green future!”

The European Wind Blade Recycling Summit was organised by ACI. The event aimed to bring together key players in the industry, including recyclers, wind farm operators, blade manufacturers and the wider supply chain of logistics and fibre-based products. The focus was on the latest developments in wind blade recycling across Europe.