Displaying items by tag: wind turbine

Taiwan: Asia Cement Corporation tested its waste wind turbine blade processing capacities using 12t of blades earlier in November 2023. The cement producer had previously processed 9t of waste turbine blades for use in its plants up to the end of October 2023. Asia Cement Corporation says that the waste consists of fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP), which is 60% silicon dioxide, calcium oxide and aluminium oxide and 40% polyester. The polyester can replace fossil fuels as alternative fuel (AF) for cement plants, while the other chemical compounds can serve as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).

US: Veolia North America (VNA) has signed a contract for the supply of used blades from onshore wind turbines from GE Renewables. The waste management company will process the blades to produce shredded composite materials for use in cement production, both as replacement for war materials such as sand and clay and as an alternative fuel. As a part of the agreement, blades that have been removed from turbines will be shredded at VNA’s processing facility in Missouri and then used in cement plants across the US. On average, nearly 90% of the blade material, by weight, will be reused as a repurposed engineered material for cement production.

Environmental solutions and services chief operating officer (COO) Bob Cappadona said, "By adding wind turbine blades — which are primarily made of fibreglass — to replace raw materials for cement manufacturing, we are reducing the amount of coal, sand and minerals that are needed to produce the cement.” GE Renewables and sustainability consultant Quantis said that the use of turbine blades in cement production would reduce net CO₂ emissions by up to 27% and water consumption by up to 13%.