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THEME PAPER

Figure 3: Waste generated in 'i'th year from wind turbines wind blade manufacturing
companies e.g. Vestas
90,000
PowerPlus®. Yet another
80,000 alternative for re-use is by using
70,000 wind blades in other structures
total waste (tonnes) 50,000 gardens etc. [(Ortegon, Nies and
e.g. bus shelter, parks and
60,000
Sutherland, 2013), (Joeman,
40,000
2021)].
30,000
20,000 Secondary recycling refers to
mechanical modification of the
10,000 waste blades. The modification
may include breaking,
0
shredding, crushing/ milling and
separation into resin and fibrous
Year
products (Mishnaevsky, 2021).
Total waste in year 'i'( Tonnes)
The end uses after mechanical
modification involves flooring,
Source: Calculations in the present study
wall construction, cement
The total waste generated from (Mishnaevsky, 2021). Metals can production and as an alternative
wind energy in India would be be easily recycled at the end-of- fuel (Miceli, no date).
about 1.1 million tonnes by year life of the wind turbine. Other Tertiary recycling refers to
2050. The waste generated materials paints, adhesives, recycling by chemical or thermal
annually shows an increasing composites materials are processes. Thermal process
trend with time. For the time difficult to recycle (Albers et al., generally employed is pyrolysis.
period between 2021 and 2050, 2009). In pyrolysis process, heating is
the waste quantity peaks in year While reviewing the literature, it carried out in the absence of
2037 as a result of 5502MW
can be observed that there are oxygen resulting into gas, oil
power installed in year 2017. some methods available for and char from polymer. The
END-OF-LIFE OPTIONS FOR recycling of these composite fibres remain inert from the
WIND TURBINES materials (NASEM, 2020): (i) process and can be reused for
primary recycling, (ii) secondary multiple applications (Pickering,
A wind turbine generally
recycling, and (iii) tertiary 2006). In recycling by chemical
consists of metals (Iron, recycling. Primary recycling process, a reactive solvent like
Aluminum, Nickel, Copper),
refers to reuse or refurbishment. nitric acid can be used for
cement, paints, adhesives and With reference to reuse, the decomposing the polymer. The
composite materials etc. As the
lifetime of the wind turbines fibres can be obtained without
blades are moving part of the may be extended by employing resin and decomposing material.
wind turbine, they are designed
analytical evaluation and on-site Although waste residue is a
to withstand various loads. As a inspection. Refurbishment may concern, chemical process has
result of the robust design, these
include removing defects like advantage over thermal
blades do not fatigue due to structural instability (Dvorak, decomposition in terms of more
loads imposed even after the end
2014). Such initiatives have also clean and higher strength fibres
of their service time
been pioneered by a number of and due to lower temperature as

April 2021 Volume 22 No. 1- SHELTER 17