Development of sustainable non-woven textiles using glass fibres recycled from End-of-Life Wind Turbine Blade

PECRE Award Holder: Dr Kyle Pender, University of Strathclyde

Exchange Host: RWTH Aachen University, Germany

The disposal of end-of-life composite products in an environmentally friendly and economically viable manner is one of the most important challenges currently facing the composites industry.

Currently glass fibre composite waste streams are generally destined to landfill. Given the vast majority are not biodegradable, landfill is certainly not a long-term viable solution to disposing these materials in a responsible manner. With an annual global production of glass fibre reinforced plastics exceeding 10 million tons, a sustainable solution for waste glass fibre composites must be established. All members of the composite industry stand to benefit greatly by the development of an industrial scale recycling process, both economically and in terms of public image.

The Advanced Composites Group at the University of Strathclyde has developed a much needed process for thermally recycling glass fibres from scrap glass fibre composites. However, the architecture and surface functionality of recycled glass fibres makes reprocessed using standard practices used for new glass fibres challenging. This joint collaborative activity with the Institute of Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University aims to develop techniques for reprocessing the recycled glass fibres, so they can be introduced into standard composite production processes with minimal impact to the composite manufacturer. Both randomly orientated and bias non-woven textiles will be prepared under various process conditions. Composites prepared using these sustainable textiles will be manufactured and their mechanical properties analysed. Following our work at Aachen University we will provide industrial interests with a variety of the non-woven textile products prepared with recycled glass fibres. We aim to work in collaboration to identify avenues/components in their production where recycled glass fibre textiles can be used. We will work with industrial interests/composite manufactures on integrating these sustainable textiles into their current production line based on their demands.