Recycling glass fiber thermoplastic composites from wind turbine blades

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:209

Article

Cousins, Dylan S.¹  Suzuki, Yasuhito^2,4  Murray, Robynne E.³  Samaniuk, Joseph R.¹  Stebner, Aaron P.² 

[1] Colorado Sch Mines, Chem & Biol Engn, 1500 Illinois St, Golden, CO 80401 USA

[2] Colorado Sch Mines, Mech Engn, 1500 Illinois St, Golden, CO 80401 USA

[3] Natl Renewable Energy Lab, 15013 Denver West Pkwy, Golden, CO 80401 USA

[4] Osaka Prefecture Univ, Dept Appl Chem, Grad Sch Engn, Naka Ku, 1-1 Gakuen Cho, Sakai, Osaka 5998531, Japan

关键词: Thermoplastic;    Recycling;    Composite;    Wind turbine blade;    Dissolution;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.10.286

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Thermoplastic resin systems have long been discussed for use in large-scale composite parts but have yet to be exploited by the energy industry. The use of these resins versus their thermosetting counterparts can potentially introduce cost savings due to non-heated tooling, shorter manufacturing cycle times, and recovery of raw materials from the retired part. Because composite parts have high embedded energy, recovery of their constituent materials can provide substantial economic benefit. This study determines the feasibility of recycling composite wind turbine blade components that are fabricated with glass fiber reinforced Elium (R) thermoplastic resin. Several experiments are conducted to tabulate important material properties that are relevant to recycling, including thermal degradation, grinding, and dissolution of the polymer matrix to recover the constituent materials. Dissolution, which is a process unique to thermoplastic matrices, allows recovery of both the polymer matrix and full-length glass fibers, which maintain their stiffness (190 N/(mm g)) and strength (160 N/g) through the recovery process. Injection molded regrind material is stiffer (12 GPa compared to 10 GPa) and stronger (150 MPa compared to 84 MPa) than virgin material that had shorter fibers. An economic analysis of the technical data shows that recycling thermoplastic-glass fiber composites via dissolution into their constituent parts is commercially feasible under certain conditions. This analysis concludes that 50% of the glass fiber must be recovered and resold for a price of $0.28/kg. Additionally, 90% of the resin must be recovered and resold at a price of $2.50/kg. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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