A pioneering new project to develop Britain's first wind turbine blade recycling pilot plant and save millions of tonnes of waste has kicked off with a visit to the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre (LMC) – a specialist centre within the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) Group.
Project PRoGrESS is a £2million, three-year scheme, that is part-funded by Innovate UK and leading industry partner Aker Offshore Wind, and seeks to deliver a circular model for wind turbine blades to support the UK's ambitious climate change targets. Led in Scotland, it will benefit the wider UK economy and create green jobs.
Partners in the world-leading scheme met for two days at The University of Strathclyde's Advanced Composites Group (ACG) facilities and the LMC, as work starts on the three-year project.
At present, when wind turbine blades reach the end of their working lives there are only two options - send them to landfill or to waste-to-energy plants where they are combusted.
Project PRoGrESS aims to commercialise a revolutionary method developed by the University of Strathclyde, separating glass-fibre and resin components in composites to recover the glass-fibre component, which can then be reprocessed, moulded and reused.
The project is overseen by Composites UK, with the expertise of researchers at the University of Strathclyde, the LMC, University of Nottingham, SUEZ recycling and recovery in the UK, composites distributor GRP Solutions and composite part manufacturer, Cubis.
Extracted from NMIS website read more here