Recycling of wind turbine blades through modern recycling technologies: A road to zero waste

Wind is a clean, efficient, fastest-growing, renewable energy source, which is extensively applied for power generation. The expected design lifetime of a wind turbine lies between 20 to 25 years and requires decommissioning at its end-of-life (EOL) stage. In recent years, the global trend is shifted towards power generation through wind turbines and has globally increased the decommissioned wind turbine blades (WTBs). Compared to other components of wind turbines, it is not convenient to recycle the carbon/glass fiber-reinforced composite-based WTBs, due to their complicated nature and inhomogeneity. Additionally, it is extremely harmful to landfill or incinerate WTBs, as these strategies may result in severe health and environmental issues. Consequently, recycling of WTBs is a viable pathway for the renewable energy sector that ensures the sustainability of wind turbines. To date, only 80% - 85% of the wind turbine materials can be recycled but have potential to reach at 100 % through proper attention required on recovery of all wind turbine materials and adaptation of circular economy (CE) models. The motivation behind this review is to emphasize the importance of sustainable options to treat WTB wastes and minimize the utilization of conventional EOL approaches such as landfilling and incineration. This review also shed lights on the current research and development (R&D) projects, which are related to the adaption of various hybrid recycling technologies and CE models. Moreover, this review also highlights current challenges and future developments of WTB composites. It is concluded that consistent and collaborative efforts should be made by each of the individuals, such as researchers, policy makers, and legislative and industrialist stake holders to improve the viability and effectiveness of the wind energy.