A composite resin suitable for making wind turbine blades could be recycled into a variety of products, including these gummy bears. Credit: John Dorgan
Key Points:
- Leftover rotor blades from wind turbines can often be problematic to dispose of.
- Scientists have discovered a composite resin that can replace rotor blades currently made of fiberglass.
- The new composite resin can be recycled and used to create high-value goods.
In an effort to make wind power more environmentally friendly, refuse from turbines might be recycled into gummy bears stocked in grocery stores near you. This is due to the efforts of Michigan State University scientists, who presented their study this week at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Wind power is generated when air forces large rotor blades on a turbine to spin. Those blades are attached to a generator, which in turn converts the energy into electricity. Disposing of the gigantic blades, which are often over 170 feet in length, can be difficult.
Innovations in blade design can exacerbate the problem of disposing of them. “Larger wind turbine blades are more efficient, so companies keep making bigger and bigger ones,” explains John Dorgan, one of the researchers. “Often, wind farms will actually replace the turbine blades before the end of service life because the farms can generate more electricity with bigger blades.”
Fiberglass, which is recyclable, is currently used to create the rotor blades. Recycling the blades, however, is not always optimal. That is because recycling fiberglass often yields low-value products, as the material’s properties degrade during the process.
The scientists are hoping to solve that problem by making new rotor blades out of a composite resin that can be recycled into a variety of goods, gummy bears included. Once the blades have reached the end of their lifespan, the scientists hope they can be recycled, ad infinitum, into other products made of resin composites.
Unlike fiberglass, the new composite resin can actually be recycled in ways to create high-value products. The researchers devised a way to transform the resin into an acrylic that can be used for manufacturing construction goods, such as windows. They even devised a method by which to turn the resin into materials used to produce diapers and food-grade products.
The research team’s next step is to create rotor blades made of the composite resin to test their efficiency. Should the tests produce positive results, the researchers say an increase in the supply of the resin is necessary to meet future demands.