Composite wind turbine blade recycling - Value creation through Industry 4.0 to enable circularity in repurposing of composites

Abstract

Composite waste, especially from wind turbine blades will increase foreseeably. The motivation of this paper is to develop new solutions to repurpose the global material stream coming from wind turbine blades at their end of use. Its suggested to use the composite structure for repurposing, differing from the available recycling methods that aim for a separation of the composite into fibre and matrix fractions. One key factor towards circularity in composite materials is converting significant amounts of composite material into multiple meaningful applications and products. Industry 4.0 can offer a systemic solution utilising robots and digital tools, such as a digital twin of a composite wind turbine blade. The digital handling of relevant material information can offer a new affordable material source to multiple industries, such as building industry or manufacturing businesses. Based on a digital platform the composite material can be made available for architects, designers and developers to repurpose composites into multiple new products.