Experimental Study and Process Simulation on Pyrolysis Characteristics of Decommissioned Wind Turbine Blades

Abstract

The development of wind power has brought about increasing challenges in decommissioning, among which DWTBs (decommissioned wind turbine blades) are the most difficult component to deal with. To enable the cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly large-scale utilization of DWTBs, an experimental study on thermogravimetric and pyrolysis characteristics of DWTBs was carried out. A new process involving recycling glass fiber with pyrolysis gas re-combustion and flue gas recirculation as the pyrolysis medium was innovatively proposed, and the simulation calculation was carried out. Thermogravimetric experiments indicated that glass fiber reinforced composite (GFRC) was the main heat-generating part in the heat utilization process of blades, and the blade material could basically complete pyrolysis at 600 °C. As the heating rate increased, the formation temperature, peak concentration, and proportion of combustible gas in the pyrolysis gas also increased. The highest peak concentration of CO gas was observed, with CO2 and C3H6 reaching their peaks at 700 °C. The solid product obtained from pyrolysis at 600 °C could be oxidized at 550 °C for 40 min to obtain clean glass fiber. And the pyrolysis temperature increased with the increase in the proportion of recirculation flue gas. When the proportion of recirculation flue gas was 66%, the pyrolysis temperature could reach 600 °C, meeting the necessary pyrolysis temperature for wind turbine blade materials. The above research provided fundamental data support for further exploration on high-value-added recycling of DWTBs.

Keywords

• decommissioned wind turbine blades
• thermogravimetric analysis
• pyrolysis
• process simulation
• recycling