Recycling Waste Wind Turbine Blades for Low-Carbon Concrete (WINDCRETE)

英国实现净零排放的雄心的核心是越来越多地过渡到可再生风能。为了实现这一目标，英国制定了绿色工业革命十点计划，将海上风能置于其能源战略的第一点。英国已经是全球领先的国家，目标是到2030年50%的电力使用风力发电，几乎是目前发电量的两倍。然而，英国正面临着一个紧迫的挑战，即在受益于风力发电的同时处理大量垃圾叶片。风叶的使用寿命为25年。据估计，在未来5年内，英国将有大约5,200个约34,400吨的叶片退役，到2050年，这个数字将增加10倍。到那时，欧洲将有32.5万个废刀片。据估计，到2050年，全球将有4300万吨废旧叶片退役，这将成为一个紧迫的国家和国际问题。风力涡轮机叶片主要由玻璃纤维复合材料制成，其中玻璃纤维嵌入聚合物树脂(如环氧树脂)中。这些复合材料的设计非常坚韧，使它们在自然环境中极难分解。不幸的是，目前的回收方法要么能源密集型，要么成本太高，留下废刀片被填埋或焚烧，造成严重的环境问题。一些欧洲国家已经通过立法禁止填埋垃圾叶片，预计英国也将效仿这一趋势。建筑业也面临着一个严重的环境问题，因为水泥(作为混凝土的关键成分)的生产是一个能源密集型过程，二氧化碳排放量巨大。一般来说，生产一吨水泥大约会在空气中释放一吨二氧化碳，使水泥生产占全球温室气体排放量的8%。2020年，英国建筑业消耗了1521.8万吨水泥，迫切需要减少水泥消耗的技术，以在2050年实现净零目标。我的奖学金旨在开发一种全新且可行的技术来回收废弃的风力涡轮机叶片，以制造低碳混凝土(WINDCRETE)。这一点得到了我的开创性研究的支持，该研究表明，研磨废叶片产生的富含二氧化硅的回收粉末在碱性溶液中具有化学活性(火山灰活性)，因此它可以取代水泥来制造混凝土。我将通过(A)玻璃和聚合物分离、(B)水化和分子模拟、(B)火山灰活性最大化、(C)强度/耐久性优化和(D)生命周期分析(LCA)的一系列基础研究，将WINDCRETE开发为一种新的建筑材料。我与风叶制造商、水泥和混凝土生产商、建筑和设计师、废物管理、复合材料行业协会和创新者等广泛行业的9个行业合作伙伴进行了接触。在与业界的密切合作中，我将通过一家初创公司将WINDCRETE从实验室带到现实世界，该初创公司基于这项研究开发的两项专利，并在合作伙伴的建筑工地上进行了成功的演示。WINDCRETE带来了一个令人兴奋的机会，解决了风能和建筑行业的两个全球问题，建立了回收废刀片同时脱碳混凝土的新范式。更重要的是，我将推广WINDCRETE，将其影响扩展到航空、汽车、海洋和电子等更广泛的行业，这些行业使用大量玻璃纤维复合材料，但面临着回收废物的同样挑战。

Central to the UK's ambition to achieve Net Zero is the increasing transition to renewable wind energy. To achieve this goal, the UK has set out a Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution which places offshore wind at Point One in its energy strategy. Already a global leader, the UK aims to generate 50% of its electricity using wind power by 2030, nearly doubling its current output. However, the UK is facing a compelling challenge of dealing with massive amount of waste blades while benefitting from wind power. The lifetime of wind blades is 25 years. It is estimated that around 5,200 blades of ~34,400 tons will be decommissioned in the next 5 years in the UK and this number will increase by 10 times by 2050. By then, Europe will have 325,000 waste blades. It is estimated that 43 million tons of waste blades will be decommissioned globally by 2050, making it a pressing national and international issue.The wind turbine blades are predominantly made of fibre glass composites comprising glass fibres embedded in a polymer resin (e.g. epoxy). These composites are engineered to be very tough, making them extremely difficult to decompose in the natural environment. Unfortunately, the current recycling methods are either energy intensive or too expensive, leaving the waste blades to be landfilled or incinerated creating serious environmental problems. Some European countries have banned landfilling waste blades through legislation and the UK is expected to follow this trend. Construction industry is also facing a critical environmental issue because the production of cement (as the key constituent of concrete) is an energy intensive process with huge CO2 emissions. Generally, producing one ton of cement releases about one ton of CO2 in the air, making cement production account for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The UK construction industry consumed 15,218,000 tons of cement in 2020, and it is in an urgent need of technologies for reducing cement consumption to achieve the Net Zero goal by 2050. My fellowship aims to develop a completely new and feasible technology to recycle waste wind turbine blades for making low-carbon concrete (WINDCRETE). This is underpinned by my pioneering research which shows that the silica-rich recycled powder from grinding the waste blades is chemically reactive in alkaline solution (pozzolanic reactivity), so that it can replace cement for making concrete. I will develop WINDCRETE into a new construction material through a series of fundamental research in (a) glass and polymer separation, (b) hydration and molecular modelling, (b) pozzolanic reactivity maximisation, (c) strength/durability optimisation and (d) life cycle analysis (LCA). I have engaged with 9 industrial partners across broad sectors including wind blade manufacturer, cement and concrete producer, construction and designer, waste management, composites trade association and innovator. In close collaboration with industries, I will bring WINDCRETE from the lab to the real world through a startup which is underpinned by two patents developed from this research and successful demonstrations on the partners' construction sites.WINDCRETE brings an exciting opportunity to address two global issues in both wind energy and construction industries, establishing a new paradigm in recycling waste blades while decarbonising concrete. More importantly, I will generalise WINDCRETE to extend its impact to wider industries like aviation, automobile, marine and electronics, which are using massive fibre glass composites but facing the same challenge of recycling the waste.