Project expected results
The expected results from LIFE REFIBRE project will be:
Feasibility demonstration of the pre-treatment of wind turbine blades in the wind farm.
Creation of a logistic model of wind turbine blades for the suitable transport to the prototype plant for recycling them.
Design and construction of an innovative prototype for the mechanical recycling of wind turbine blades with a capacity of 100 kg/h and a yield of 50% demonstrating at pre-industrial level the efficiency and effectiveness of the recycling process.
Reduction of GFRP waste, maximizing the recycling of this waste from wind turbine blades once their useful life has finished.
Obtaining 50 kg/h of recycled glass fibre with the optimal properties for its application.
Dosage optimisation of recycled glass fibre to be added to the asphalt mixture around 0,5-1,5% weight, related to the asphalt pavement.
Construction of a 12.000 m2 surface road section as demonstrator.
Reduction of waste in dumping sites by 23,04 tons of glass fibre approximately, which avoids the emission of 12,834 kg de CO2 equivalent. (*)
23,04 tons of recycled glass fibre will be introduced in the asphalt mixture to build the road section as demonstrator, avoiding the emission of 50,45 t CO2 equivalent (*) , which would imply its manufacture if it were virgin glass fibre
Monitoring the demonstrator road sector in order to follow its evolution.
Improvement the mechanical properties of the demonstrator road sector with recycled glass fibre added. These improvements will be:
- Increase the durability of the demonstrator road by 30% (3 years more than the current duration), by avoiding cracks in the extended part and avoids the inlet filtration of water in the lower layers.
- 10% increase in the resistance to deformation.
- Increase of 12,5% of the resilience (related to the deformation energy), minimizing the formation and propagation of cracks.
- Increase by 45% fatigue resistance.
- Increase by 7% rigidity.
- Higher resistance to extreme temperatures.
High project replicability that will avoid high quantity of glass fibre sends to dumping sites, providing them a second life cycle.
Results easily transferable to rest of Spain as well as other European countries, due to the wide network of roads in Europe, as well as to the high number of existing wind farms.
(*) Kg CO2 equivalents have been calculated according to the Recipe Midpoint (H) environmental impact assessment methodology.