Re-use and recycling of (G)FRP waste

Wind power is one of today’s fastest growing energy sources. In the EU alone, it is predicted that the consumed wind energy will increase from 5.3% in 2010 to 15.7% by 2020 and according to certain studies, it will continue to rise to 50% by 2050.The wind energy industry is seeking solutions for the large quantities of waste windmill blades which will become available in the near future. Being mainly made of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP), wind turbine blades are robust and the recycling of their waste is often seen as one of the main bottlenecks, given their mainly, thermoset matrix.  In this proposal, some promising routes to tackle this waste problem are presented and studied: re-use of FRP waste from large structures into re-bars for geopolymer matrices; cold incorporation of shredded FRP material in geopolymers; high temperature incorporation of shredded FRP material in geopolymers. These options all involve incorporation of the recycled material in recycled inorganic “geopolymer” material. To assess the viability of the various proposed routes, this project does not only conduct an exploratory research to lead to conclusions on which routes have the best technical feasibility and mechanical properties, but also proposes a life cycle assessment study to judge which routes are most promising for future implementation.