Typical wind turbines, critical as they are to the renewable energy transition, are wasteful to produce and almost impossible to reuse. We spoke to Ryan Clarke, a materials scientist at Hexion Inc, about new turbines made out of recyclable resin, which not only utilize less energy in production, but also create less waste as they can be recycled. For a transcript, please visit: https://climatebreak.org/recyclable-resin-for-wind-turbines-with-ryan-clarke/
The Benefits of Recycling Wind Turbines
While wind energy is renewable and non-polluting, the wind turbines themselves can create pollution problems. Now, scientists are creating wind turbines that can be made with less energy, but also create less waste because they can be recycled. This, of course, reduces impacts on the waste stream and provides a sustainable alternative to current wind turbines that are often extremely hard to recycle. Moreover, the new material requires less energy to create and mold into the desired output, subsequently reducing associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Making Wind Turbines with Recyclable Resin
Not surprisingly, even renewable energy resources also have environmental costs. For instance, when the life of a wind turbine ends (after about 20 years), it ends up in landfills. Moreover, as more wind farms are built and older turbines are taken out of usage, the waste burden is significant. Most resins also used in wind turbines require many nonrenewable resources and a lot of energy to produce. In addition, they do not easily degrade.
This is why researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) started developing turbines from recyclable resin. They call the resin PECAN, and it is created with “bio-derivable resources” like sugars as opposed to the type of resin that has traditionally been used, which is not bio-derived and extremely hard to upcycle. Specifically, when the wind blades are unusable they are shredded to be used as “concrete filling”, which never biodegrades, while turbines made of recyclable resin can chemically break down within 6 hours.
Benefits of Recyclable Resin
Not only can PECAN withstand harsh weather, but it does not deform over time. Additionally, once the resin undergoes a chemical process called “methanolysis” it only takes 6 hours for the original carbon and glass to be recovered to be recycled. Moreover, the catalyst to harden the resin is also recovered and this means that it is possible for it to be used again (creating a circular waste stream). Moreover, PECAN produces “40% less greenhouse gas emissions and 30% less energy to make”.
Challenges of Implementation
There is a general lack of awareness of solutions like PECAN which strive to make our waste stream more circular, and without that awareness, it would not be able to make the large positive impact that it is capable of making. This is also one of the reasons why right now, wind turbines made out of recyclable resin proves to be more expensive, as there is not enough of a demand for it yet.
Ryan Clarke believes that creating wind turbines from naturally occurring resources like sugars can be extremely helpful in waste reduction. Additionally, he emphasizes that larger deployment of this technology and increased awareness can lead to major cost savings in the long run.
About Our Guest
Ryan Clarke studied materials science and became a postdoctoral researcher for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where he was the study’s lead author. Now, he works at Hexion Inc. as a R&D material scientist.
Resources
Further Reading
For a transcript, please visit: https://climatebreak.org/recyclable-resin-for-wind-turbines-with-ryan-clarke/
Ethan: I’m Ethan Elkind, and you’re listening to Climate Break. Climate solutions in a hurry. This week’s solution: Recyclable wind turbines to reduce emissions from waste disposal and lower the cost of renewable energy. Ryan Clarke, a post-doctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, describes the problem.
Clarke: At the end of life for a wind blade, which is about 20 years before they're decommissioned, there's no way to recover any value, so the polymers get landfilled, the fibers go with them. All of that will either go to landfill, be shredded down to go to concrete, or incinerated.
Ethan: Clarke’s team is developing a technology to reuse these wind turbine polymers, which are the natural or synthetic substances that make up a wind turbine. They’ve created a material they call PECAN, which is made from naturally occurring resources like sugars.
Clarke: PECAN, which is the nickname for the technology that we're using, it's like the nut, but it's a polymer, so it can be reused again, and then you get products that can be put into the next life. So when you compare that to things like incineration, that, of course, you're evolving harmful chemicals and gases for the atmosphere or land filling, which is really a worst case scenario, um, the end of life environmental impacts will be significantly improved.
Ethan: Clarke is optimistic that biobased material will help bring down costs in the long term.
Clarke: So it's biobased, it's recyclable, and it stands up performance wise against what's on the market. These biomaterials, they're not really produced at a scale that allows us to drive that cost down, but the nice thing about this closed loop recycling is, is once you have that material in your blade and you break it back down, those products can be remade into that, that same quality starting material.
Ethan: To learn more about recyclable wind turbines, visit climatebreak.org.