Rewind Research Project
Efficient Decommissioning, Repurposing and Recycling of end-of-life Wind Energy Systems
The aim of REWIND is to develop critical technologies for dismantling wind turbine blades and implementing new methodologies for composites repurposing and recycling to increase their circularity, raising the industrial applications of the end-of-life composites and avoiding the current landfilling or incineration.
The main purposes of this project are:
- Demonstrate efficient technologies for decommissioning EoL wind turbines
- Repurpose of EoL composite in industrial applications
- Develope cost-effective composites recycling technologies
- Produce good quality yarns and fabrics from the recycled fibres
- Use secondary raw materials for the manufacturing of new composite within wind energy sector
- Improve environmental & economic sustainability of processes and products
- Maximize socio-economic impact of REWIND
Rewind project overview
On a global scale, an estimated 2,5 million of tons of composite materials are currently in use in wind turbines. It is expected that 350 Ktons of end-of-life (EoL) wind turbine blades (WTBs) will be decommissioned in Europe in 2030. However, the cost-efficient recycling of composite materials remains a challenge and circularity of wind turbine blades is basically close to zero today. Rewind will develop suitable disassembly, quality inspection and characterisation of the composite waste, to decide if composite parts from EoL products should be reused or recycled depending on their value. REWIND will show potential high-value applications for composite end-of-life: repurposing for construction and automotive sector. New innovative pyrolysis and solvolysis methods for recycling will be developed to reduce the processing temperature and time. The secondary raw materials obtained (sized recycled fiber fabrics and recycled vitrimer matrix from polymerized monomers) will be used to rethink and manufacture a small wind blade root section and composites patches for blades repairing.
Expected outcomes of Rewind project
| Improved overall lifetime, reliability, recyclability, sustainability of onshore and offshore wind turbines | |
| Potential new markets in wind turbines recycling and/or re-purposing | |
| Enhanced overall sustainability of wind energy systems based on mainstreamed Life Cycle Analysis addressing social, economic and environmental aspects, as well as improved circularity | |
| More efficient decommissioning, and improved circularity of wind turbine concepts. Circularity by design |
Alkè's role in the Rewind project
The Rewind project includes 14 partners from 7 countries. The consortium is formed by 6 RTDs (2 of them universities), 4 SMEs, 3 large companies and 1 association. Goal for Alkè is the reuse of EoL composites for electric trucks van box body manufacturing. In particular Alkè will support the definition of material requirements based on application needs, the prototyping into a physical electric vehicle with van box body and the validation on real driving conditions with the support of the Alkè cloud monitoring system to evaluate material behavior during tests VS activity performed.
For more details on the Rewind project visit: www.rewind-project.eu.
This project has received funding from CINEA under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101148123.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
The Rewind project consists of 14 project partners:
