REFRESH partners RINA, ACCIONA, and CIRCE are participating in Leadvent’s 3rd Annual Wind Blade Materials and Recycling Forum in Amsterdam. The event takes place on 3-4 February.

RINA

REFRESH project coordinator Daniel Grisenti of RINA Consulting will speak on the second day of the conference.

The presentation REFRESH: Scaling Up Sustainable End-of-life Solutions for Blades will focus on the project’s holistic approach to blade recycling, covering the entire value chain:

  • Blade cutting, shredding and sorting technologies;
  • Mechanical and thermal recycling processes;
  • Design of a range of new sustainable products;
  • Blockchain traceability platform.

The presentation takes place at 16:05 on 4th February.

CIRCE

Ignacio Julián, Technology Project Manager at CIRCE, will discuss Microwave-assisted Recycling of WTB: Challenges, Prospects, Process Scaling and Techno-economic Assessment.

The presentation will cover:

  • The potential benefits of microwave heating: fast, selective and energy-efficient heating source;
  • Interactions between microwave irradiation and wind turbine blade components;
  • Prospects of microwave-assisted pyrolysis and solvolysis for reclaiming fibres and production of resin-derived oils;
  • Quality and potential end uses of reclaimed products;
  • Techno-economic assessment of both recycling technologies based on experimental findings at bench and pilot
    microwave reactor units.

The presentation takes place at 12.20 on 4th February.

ACCIONA Construcción

Anurag Bansal, Head of Strategic Innovations at ACCIONA Construcción, will deliver the presentation Challenges and Strategies for Using Recycled Wind Turbine Blades in Construction.

This will discuss:

  • Challenges in the construction industry: demand for sustainable and cost-effective materials;
  • Material recovered from end-of-life wind turbine blades: integrating recovered material and recycled fibres into composites;
  • Sustainable composite solutions: profiles and parts manufactured enabling circular use of composites.

The presentation takes place at 15.10 on 4th February.

Panel discussion

Anurag Bansal will also be one of the participants on the panel discussion Leading End Markets for Recycled or Repurposed Materials.

This panel will aim to:

  • Identify some of the leading end markets for repurposed or recycled blade material;
  • Discuss why the leading end markets have seen more success than others;
  • Examine potential forthcoming end markets and comment on what technologies or regulations may be enablers.

For this debate Anurag will join:

  • Dr Pierre Gerard, Senior Sr Expert Composite, Head of Recycling program, Arkema;
  • Claudia Martens, CEO, Joulmine GmbH & Co. KG;
  • Cristina Fernández Alonso, Product Service Engineer – Blade Project Manager, GE Vernova;
  • Joachim Karthäuser, Chairman, Wingbeam Sweden AB;
  • Niels Ludwig, Senior Engineer, Fraunhofer-Institute für Windenergiesysteme IWES.

The moderator is Mitch Rencheck, Sr. Research Engineer, Energy Generation, Electric Power Research Institute.

The panel takes place at 16:15 on 4th February.

3rd Annual Wind Blade Materials And Recycling Forum

The 3rd Wind Blade Materials and Recycling Forum, organised by Leadvent Group, aims to bring together industry leaders, innovators and sustainability experts focused on advancing wind blade recycling and the use of sustainable materials. The event will feature discussions on recent advancements in circular economy strategies, innovative materials, and effective end-of-life solutions for wind energy infrastructure.

Further information is available on the Leadvent website.