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Wind Turbine Blades Using Recycled Carbon Fibers: An Environmental Assessment
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry. Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8418-3515
Civil and Environmental Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 501 E. Saint Joseph Blvd., SD, Rapid City, United States; 2-Dimensional Materials for Biofilm Engineering Science and Technology (2D BEST) Center, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 501 E. St. Joseph Street, SD, Rapid City, United States.
Department of Forest Biomaterials and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden.
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8709-6970
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2022 (English)In: Environmental Science and Technology, ISSN 0013-936X, E-ISSN 1520-5851, Vol. 56, no 2, p. 1267-1277Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Polymers reinforced with virgin carbon fibers (VCF) are being used to make spar caps of wind turbine (WT) blades and polymers with glass fibers (GF) to make skins of the blade components. Here, we assess the life cycle environmental performance of the hybrid blades with spar caps based on VCF and the shells and shear webs based on RCF (recycled CF) composites (RCF-hybrid). The production of the WT blades and associated reinforced polymers is assumed to occur in Sweden, with their uses and end-of-life management in the European region. The functional unit is equivalent to three blades in an offshore WT with the market incumbent blades solely based on the GF composite or the hybrid option. The RCF-hybrid blades offer 12-89% better environmental performance in nine out of 10 impact categories and 6-26% better in six out of 10 impact categories. The RCF-hybrid blades exhibit optimum environmental performance when the VCF manufacturing facilities are equipped with pollution abatement systems including regenerative thermal oxidizers to reduce ammonia and hydrogen cyanide emissions; spar caps are made using VCF epoxy composites through pultrusion and resin infusion molding, and the blade scrap is mechanically recycled at the end of life. The energy and carbon payback times for the RCF-hybrid blades were found to be 5-13% lower than those of the market incumbents.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Chemical Society (ACS), 2022. Vol. 56, no 2, p. 1267-1277
Keywords [en]
energy and carbon payback time, high-performance discontinuous fiber technology, life cycle assessment, recycled carbon fibers, wind turbine blade components
National Category
Energy Systems
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-191668DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c05462ISI: 000741047900001PubMedID: 34981927Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85122764098OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-191668DiVA, id: diva2:1630833
Available from: 2022-01-21 Created: 2022-01-21 Last updated: 2022-08-04Bibliographically approved

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Upadhyayula, Venkata Krishna KumarTysklind, Mats

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