Seven European companies jointly create 100% recyclable wind turbine blades

On December 20, Arkema announced that its participating ZEBRA-Zero wastE Blade ReseArch recently completed the full-scale verification test of the first recyclable wind turbine blade and produced the second recyclable thermoplastic resin blade.

Launched in September 2020, the ZEBRA project is a special partnership organization led by the French research institution IRT Jules Verne, bringing together seven companies including Arkema, CANOE, ENGIE, LM Wind Power, Owens Corning and Suez. It aims to demonstrate the technical, economic and environmental relevance of full-scale thermoplastic wind turbine blades with an eco-design approach that favors recycling.

The recyclable thermoplastic resin blades are manufactured at LM Wind Power's blade factory in Castellon, Spain. The 77-meter-long blades use Arkema's recyclable thermoplastic liquid resin Elium® and its subsidiary Bostik's adhesive.

From a performance point of view, according to the test results of small blade samples by the American Renewable Energy Laboratory and others, Elium® resin can provide mechanical properties comparable to thermosetting resins. For example, glass fiber/Elium® blades have similar properties to epoxy resin blades. Stiffness, its structural damping is seven times that of epoxy blades.