The REFRESH team in Gees Aviano plant.

The REFRESH partners gathered in Italy on 26-27 November for the project’s second review meeting.

This milestone event was hosted by Gees Recycling in Aviano and attended by European Commission Project Officer Pablo Vicente Laiglesia and external expert Rik Voerman.

Review meetings are an important part of Horizon Europe projects. During these meetings the project partners meet with external reviews to demonstrate the progress made so far.

The REFRESH value chain

After three years of intensive work by every partner, REFRESH is truly demonstrating the circularity of composite wind turbine blades.

Starting from a smart cutting solution (ETAT9) and an efficient shredding and sorting stage (MTB), the REFRESH value chain offers optimised recycling approaches (Gees, Gjenkraft, CIRCE, Enecolab) while an ecodesign strategy (CETMA) is opening up a world of possibilities for the recycled materials, from construction products (ACCIONA) such as formwork, to completely closing the loop by using recycled blade materials in a new blade.

All processes are being supported by comprehensive sustainability analyses (RINA) and a novel blockchain traceability platform (TECNALIA).

Effective communication and disssemination activities (EuCIA) underpin the project’s technical progress.

New plants

This review meeting provided an opportunity to visit Gees’ brand new mechanical recycling line. Currently being commissioned, this will manufacture versatile panels suitable for a broad range of applications in construction and beyond.

Virtual tours offered a view of Gjenkraft’s advanced thermal process in Norway, which recovers glass fibre for diverse potential uses, while Enecolab’s thermochemical process in Italy converts non-recyclable dust and fines into syngas for energy.

Stay tuned! During the next 12 months we’ll highlight the partners’ individual achievements as well as the success of the whole consortium in taking REFRESH from concept to reality.