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    Home > Coatings News > Paints and Coatings Market > Composite fan blade recovery

    Composite fan blade recovery

    • Last Update: 2021-01-07
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    China Coatings Online News: The number and size
    fan blades around the world are growing rapidly. The
    fan blades are 100 times

    100
    1980s, according to China Coatings Online, an expert at china Coatings Online. During this time, the diameter of the blades has increased eightfold, and the length of the blades has exceeded 6 meters. Countries vigorously promote the development of the wind power industry, which is bound to lead to an increase in waste blade production, so what method to deal with waste blades can make wind energy become a greener energy? Fan blades typically contain fiber-reinforced materials (e.g. fiberglass or carbon fiber), plastic polymers (polyester or epoxy resin), sandwich materials (PVC, PET or Basham) and coatings (polyurethane). As the blade size increases, so do the amount of material required for blade production. It is estimated that 10 kg of blade material is required for every 1kW of new installed capacity. Therefore, a 7.5MW fan requires about 75 tons of blade material. The service life of the fan blades is about 20 to 25 years. So how to deal with discarded blades is a problem. It is estimated that the weight of fiber composite materials to be processed each year will reach more than 2.04 billion tons. The wind power industry is relatively new and has little experience in the practical handling of fan blades, especially offshore wind turbines. Therefore, it may take more than 20 years for wind power systems to gain sufficient practical experience in demolition, separation, treatment, etc. Existing methods for disposing of waste fan blades are landfilling, incineration or recycling.
    way to reduce landfills is largely outdated in countries that are committed to reducing landfills (e.g. Germany). At present, however, China uses the most landfills. The most common treatment is incineration. In so-called co-production (CHP) plants, heat generated by incineration is used to generate electricity and heat regional heating systems. But 60 per cent of the waste only turns to ashes after burning. Because composites contain inorgable substances, these ashes may contain contaminated substances, depending on their type and reprocessing method, and the ashes are either buried or recycled as an alternative material. Inorgeous substances can also produce dangerous exhaust gases, where the remaining fine fiberglass can cause problems with the flue gas cleaning process, mainly in dust filtration equipment. Fan blades need to be disassembled and crushed before entering the incinerator, which further increases environmental pressure from an energy consumption and emission point of view. In addition, problems with workers' health and safety can be caused during incineration. Recycling is an environmentally friendly treatment. New, more efficient blades made from recycled materials can replace old ones. However, there are few proven methods of fan blade recycling, and only 30% of fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) can be recycled to make new FRPs, most of which are added to the cement industry. Over the past few years, companies around the world have carried out a number of research projects on the recycling of fan blades and launched a number of innovative products.
    2003-2005, the Dutch Electrical Materials Association (KEMA) and the Polish Institute of Industrial Chemicals (ICRI) jointly led a project to study the mechanical recycling of frect steel (FRP), which crushes materials and recycles them. This project uses a hybrid shredder with "cut-on-demand" function to crush fiberglass (FRP) to a length of 15 to 25 mm at a speed of 2.5 tons per hour, with little damage to the fiber's internal structure. To avoid danger during crushing. After crushing, the quality of the fiber is improved by a re-active method. Chemically bond it to a new substation for better performance. Another technology is fiber length separation technology developed by HAMOS to remove impurities. One of the problems with crushed glass and steel (FRP) waste in the re-use process is the re-bonding of fibers and resins. Because crushed fibers often carry residual resin, bonding is more difficult. Only if the recovered fiber is longer than the original fiber can it bond better to the new substation. For the recovery of fan blades, an additional step is required to cut the blades into large pieces in the field for easy transport. Cutting is done by shredders (crushing/grabbing equipment connected to the end of a crane or excavator) that is currently widely used. However, the demand for composite recycling materials is not as strong as steel, and its application prospects are very limited. Another problem is that the recycled fibers are shorter than the original fibers and have a "original" resin on the surface, making it more difficult to arrange them in a certain direction.
    makes it difficult to increase the strength of products as needed, such as car bumpers. But the auto industry has not stopped recycling and re-using its own waste. Fiberglass is hard and the crushing process requires a lot of energy, so the value of this filler is so low that it is difficult to make economics unless a cheaper source of energy can be found. Chemical recovery by solvent decomposition is also a method of recovery. In this way, most of the stretch strength of the glass fiber can be preserved, and some plastic materials can also be used as new raw materials. However, the use of aggressive hazardous chemicals for recycling has not been promoted and the cost of this approach is high. Another method is to use high temperature pyration and gasification methods to recover heat and materials. Although fibers lose their "most" stretch strength and are expensive to technology, end products are very pure and heat in plastics is recycled in the form of electricity and heat. The recycling process is as follows: the waste is cut on site to a transportable size using a hydraulic shearer or similar tool, the components are further crushed into palm-sized blocks upon arrival at the factory, the material is continuously fed into an oxygen-free swing furnace at a high temperature of 500 degrees C, the plastic is broken down into synthetic gases at high temperatures, the gas is used for electricity production, and also Used to heat the swing furnace, in the secondary swing furnace, the fiberglass material is purified under atmospheric conditions, the metal is sieved and recovered by magnets, the dust in the residue of the glass fiber material is removed, and the glass fiber mixed with a small amount of polypropylene fiber passes through the furnace, and the PP fiber melts and connects to the glass fiber to form a stable insulation plate. High temperature thermolyte products are mainly heat-resistant insulation materials.
    fibers can also be used as a raw material for fillers, viscous coatings, thermoplastic components, asphalt and concrete, and new fiberglass. The thermal energy contained in composite materials can be used to generate electricity and power the process. Recycled fiberglass (GRP) fan blade materials can no longer be used in new blades, as recycled fiberglass is always less strong than the original glass fiber, so the wind industry cannot use recycled reinforced fibers. Unlike fiberglass, carbon fiber is recovered from pre-immersed epoxy/carbon fiber material, and the E-mould of the returned carbon fiber does not change, while the final stretch strength is reduced by only 5%. Although the blade recycling enterprises have achieved obvious success in the treatment methods and recycling methods of fan blades, but due to cost problems, related projects have not been well developed. By far the cheapest solution for most wear blades and production waste in Denmark is buried. There are several different views on the issue of blade recycling, some people think that the fundamental problem of blade recycling is not the material itself, but the lack of a sufficient share of waste, so businesses have financial difficulties in investing in recycling projects. Others believe that the industry, which uses thermo-solid composites, wants to produce durable products and expects new recycling technologies in the coming years. As far as thermosoensing materials and their chemical properties are concerned, it is difficult to find any good recycling methods. Therefore, the recovery of thermoo-solid composites is a major challenge.
    , the recycling of blades will become a more important issue, both from an environmental and economic point of view. The current flow of blade waste is still difficult to control, so a solution must be found. Countries want to take the commercial path of composite waste and move towards sustainability. Due to the enormous challenges faced by waste blades in recycling, some organizations have begun to develop new methods of blade production to simplify the processing and recycling of waste blades. By the automotive industry, it is not difficult to find thermoplastic materials more easily recycled, so try to use thermoplastic substation composites in fan blades. However, the physical properties of megawatt blades made of thermoplastic materials have not been proven. For small fans around 5kW, some molded reinforced thermoplastics or other thermoplastic materials can be used. In this case, the recovery of leaves will be much easier. A growing number of fan companies are adopting polyethylene glycol benzoate (PET) foam, a fully recyclable thermoplastic structural foam that can be recycled and reused. After shredding and mixing it into a new product, you can still maintain the same performance and intensity. AlcanAirex has now recycled its PET foam AIREXT91. There are still many problems with the recovery of fan blades, but research has progressed on how to recycle glass fiber-reinforced materials (GPPs) and possible applications of recycled materials.
    This article is an English version of an article which is originally in the Chinese language on echemi.com and is provided for information purposes only. This website makes no representation or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness ownership or reliability of the article or any translations thereof. If you have any concerns or complaints relating to the article, please send an email, providing a detailed description of the concern or complaint, to service@echemi.com. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days. Once verified, infringing content will be removed immediately.

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