Recycling Composite Wind Turbine Blade for High-Performance Composite Manufacturing

The project

The wind energy industry is the fastest growing global consumer of glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GRP) composites. In parallel with this growth is rising GRP waste from end-of-life wind turbine blades (WTB). Unlike other wind turbine components modern lightweight composite WTB are not designed for recyclability. Consequently, developing commercially viable solutions for WTB recycling and reuse is rapidly becoming one of the most important challenges facing global wind industry. This project aims to develop a cost-effective recycling process with commercial competitiveness for large scale recycling of wind turbine blades through reducing the energy demand in the recycling process, improving the quality of reclaimed fibres, and improving their manufacturability.

Dr Liu Yang - Principal Investigator

Dr Liu Yang is a Senior Lecturer Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Starthclyde. Dr Yang's current research on composites recycling and reuse includes the development of economically viable routes to recycling fibre reinforced composites and reusing recyclates in new industrial applications. Dr Yang's research also focuses on composites interface, aerogel composites, self-healing elastomer and multi-scale material modelling.

Read more about Dr Liu Yang