Collaborative US-Ireland: Re-use and Recycling of Decommissioned Composite Material Wind Turbine Blades

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The proposal for this research project was submitted under the US-Ireland tripartite program which supports collaborative research between researchers in the United States, the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. The objective of this research project is to establish a methodology to compare sustainable end-of-life reuse and recycling strategies for wind turbine blades made of composite materials. The methodology is being developed using a Geographic Information Science (GIS) platform coupled with environmental, economic and social life-cycle assessments. The very rapid growth in wind energy technology in the last 15 years has led to a commensurate rapid growth in the amount of non-biodegradable, thermosetting fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials used in wind turbine blades. The hypothesis behind this research project is that reuse and recycling strategies can be found that will prevent environmentally and socially unpalatable and unsustainable landfilling and incineration disposal methods. Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are being used as a test-bed for this research. Numerical models of turbine blades from SANDIA National Labs are being used, and physical tests are being conducted on a donated turbine blade. A team of researchers from the City College of New York, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University College Cork, Ireland and Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland in disciplines of engineering, architecture, geography, sociology, and political science are conducting the research project. The research is being conducted in four parts with the following intellectual foci: (1) Wind Energy - social, environmental and economic sustainability of reuse and recycling and disposal options for decommissioned wind turbine blades. (2) Design for the Built Environment - design of architectural and engineering structures and products from decommissioned wind turbine blades in the highly-constrained contexts of the blade properties and the potential reuse sites. (3) Structural Mechanics - understanding the residual properties of wind blade composite materials at the end of their service lives, the appropriate load cases for the reused structures or products and their structural design, and, (4) Geographic Information Science (GIS) - an open GIS for wind blade reuse and recycling, containing embedded reuse design options and their environmental, economic and social impacts, for subsequent network analysis. Advances are anticipated in many fields of science including social, environmental and economic modeling of reuse and recycling, life-cycle assessments, conceptual design, parametric modeling, design of fiber reinforced polymer composite structures, residual properties of composite materials, databases for Geographic Information Science (GIS), and network analysis for sustainability. The broader impacts of the research can be divided into three categories: (1) Scientific - the methodology created in this research could be broadly applicable to other large manufacturing industries in addition to the wind energy industry. It will also provide guidance to policy-makers and community leaders on best-practices to positively impact both the industry and local communities and to avoid friction. Additionally, this research is may contribute to the emerging field of social life-cycle assessment. (2) Societal - the most important societal impact of this research is intended to be methodology that will enable policy and community stakeholders to inform and educate the public and improve the acceptability of wind energy. In addition, reuse of wind turbine blades will have positive impacts on air quality and water quality and decrease a major non-biodegradable waste stream. (3) Education and Training - the unique combination of institutions in this research will expose all faculty, staff and student researchers to cultural, ethnic and economic diversity. Since most wind farms are situated in rural areas, it is likely that much of the re-fabricating activities envisioned for reusing wind blades will occur in rural areas. Rural areas tend to suffer from higher than average unemployment and as such this research could have an impact on the local economy and job creation in some regions. This award is co-funded by the CBET/ENG Environmental Sustainability program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.