Recycling Waste Wind Turbine Blades for Low-Carbon Concrete (WINDCRETE)

回收废弃风力涡轮机叶片制成低碳混凝土 (WINDCRETE)

• 批准号: MR/X034054/1
• 负责人: Chao Wu
• 金额: $ 201.17万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FX034054%2F1
• 关键词: Recycling; Waste; Wind; Turbine; Blades

Central to the UK's ambition to achieve Net Zero is the increasing transition to renewable wind energy. To achieve this goal, the UK has set out a Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution which places offshore wind at Point One in its energy strategy. Already a global leader, the UK aims to generate 50% of its electricity using wind power by 2030, nearly doubling its current output. However, the UK is facing a compelling challenge of dealing with massive amount of waste blades while benefitting from wind power. The lifetime of wind blades is 25 years. It is estimated that around 5,200 blades of ~34,400 tons will be decommissioned in the next 5 years in the UK and this number will increase by 10 times by 2050. By then, Europe will have 325,000 waste blades. It is estimated that 43 million tons of waste blades will be decommissioned globally by 2050, making it a pressing national and international issue.The wind turbine blades are predominantly made of fibre glass composites comprising glass fibres embedded in a polymer resin (e.g. epoxy). These composites are engineered to be very tough, making them extremely difficult to decompose in the natural environment. Unfortunately, the current recycling methods are either energy intensive or too expensive, leaving the waste blades to be landfilled or incinerated creating serious environmental problems. Some European countries have banned landfilling waste blades through legislation and the UK is expected to follow this trend. Construction industry is also facing a critical environmental issue because the production of cement (as the key constituent of concrete) is an energy intensive process with huge CO2 emissions. Generally, producing one ton of cement releases about one ton of CO2 in the air, making cement production account for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The UK construction industry consumed 15,218,000 tons of cement in 2020, and it is in an urgent need of technologies for reducing cement consumption to achieve the Net Zero goal by 2050. My fellowship aims to develop a completely new and feasible technology to recycle waste wind turbine blades for making low-carbon concrete (WINDCRETE). This is underpinned by my pioneering research which shows that the silica-rich recycled powder from grinding the waste blades is chemically reactive in alkaline solution (pozzolanic reactivity), so that it can replace cement for making concrete. I will develop WINDCRETE into a new construction material through a series of fundamental research in (a) glass and polymer separation, (b) hydration and molecular modelling, (b) pozzolanic reactivity maximisation, (c) strength/durability optimisation and (d) life cycle analysis (LCA). I have engaged with 9 industrial partners across broad sectors including wind blade manufacturer, cement and concrete producer, construction and designer, waste management, composites trade association and innovator. In close collaboration with industries, I will bring WINDCRETE from the lab to the real world through a startup which is underpinned by two patents developed from this research and successful demonstrations on the partners' construction sites.WINDCRETE brings an exciting opportunity to address two global issues in both wind energy and construction industries, establishing a new paradigm in recycling waste blades while decarbonising concrete. More importantly, I will generalise WINDCRETE to extend its impact to wider industries like aviation, automobile, marine and electronics, which are using massive fibre glass composites but facing the same challenge of recycling the waste.

英国实现净零的野心的核心是向可再生风能的过渡越来越多。为了实现这一目标，英国为绿色工业革命制定了一个十分计划，该计划将海上风在其能源战略中的第一点处置。英国已经成为全球领导者，目的是到2030年使用风能发电，其目前的产量几乎翻了一番。但是，英国正面临着令人信服的挑战，即从风力发电中受益的同时应对大量废物叶片。风叶片的寿命为25年。据估计，在英国未来5年将退役约5,200块约34,400吨，到2050年，这一数字将增加10倍。到那时，欧洲将拥有325,000个废物叶片。据估计，到2050年将在全球范围内退役4300万吨废物叶片，这使其成为国家和国际问题。风力涡轮机叶片主要由纤维玻璃复合材料制成，这些玻璃复合材料包括包含聚合物树脂中的玻璃纤维（例如，环氧树脂）。这些复合材料的设计非常艰难，因此在自然环境中很难分解它们。不幸的是，当前的回收方法要么是能量密集型或太昂贵的，因此将废物叶片填充或焚化，造成严重的环境问题。一些欧洲国家通过立法禁止垃圾填埋场，英国有望遵循这一趋势。建筑行业也面临着一个关键的环境问题，因为水泥的生产（作为混凝土的关键组成部分）是一个具有巨大二氧化碳排放的能源密集型过程。通常，生产一吨水泥释放大约一吨二氧化碳，使水泥生产占全球温室气体排放的8％。英国建筑业在2020年消耗了15,218,000吨水泥，迫切需要技术来减少水泥消耗以在2050年到2050年实现净零目标。我的奖学金旨在开发一种全新的新技术来恢复一种制造低碳混凝土（Windcrete）的全新技术，以恢复一项全新的浪费风力涡轮机。这是我的开创性研究的基础，该研究表明，在碱性溶液中，磨碎废物叶片的富含二氧化硅的再生粉末具有化学反应性（Pozzolanic反应性），因此它可以代替水泥来制造混凝土。我将通过（a）玻璃和聚合物分离，（b）水合和分子建模，（b）火山灰反应性最大化，（c）强度/耐用性优化和（d）生命周期分析（LCA）的一系列基本研究将Windcrete开发为新的建筑材料。我曾与跨广阔部门的9个工业合作伙伴订婚，包括风刀制造商，水泥和混凝土生产商，建筑和设计师，废物管理，复合材料贸易协会和创新者。在与行业的密切合作中，我将通过一家创业公司将Windcrete从实验室带到现实世界，这是由这项研究的两项专利和在合作伙伴的建筑工地上的成功演示所支持的。WindCrete为解决风能和建筑工业中的两个全球问题带来了一个令人兴奋的机会，在恢复浪费的浪费蓝色的同时，将其在较新的范围内融合了同时融合了含有杂物。更重要的是，我将概括Windcrete将其影响扩大到更广泛的行业，例如使用大量的纤维玻璃复合材料，但面临回收废物的挑战。