Addressing the Sustainability Challenges of Renewable Energy

Danish researchers have developed a chemical process that can disassemble the epoxy composite of wind turbine blades and extract intact glass fibers as well as one of the epoxy resin’s original building blocks in high quality. The recovered materials could potentially be used in the production of new blades. The process can contribute to establishing a potential circular economy in the wind turbine, aerospace, automotive and space industries. However, the method is not immediately scalable yet, as the catalytic system is not efficient enough for industrial implementation, and ruthenium is a rare and expensive metal.