UMaine researchers goal to recycle wind turbine blades as 3D printing materials
A group of College of Maine researchers have secured a $75,000 grant to discover recycling wind blades as feedstock for 3D printing. The award is a Section 1 winner from the Division of Power’s Wind Power Applied sciences Workplace’s Wind Turbine Supplies Recycling Prize.
Led by the Superior Constructions and Composites Heart (ASCC), the WIND REWIND group’s venture “Blades for Giant-Format Additive Manufacturing” marks a major milestone of their mission to advance recycling options for a round wind vitality financial system.
“We’re grateful for the Division of Power’s continued help in our mission to advance wind vitality applied sciences. With 1000’s of wind blades destined for landfill disposal, this funding permits us to discover the accountable recycling of those merchandise, to reuse and repurpose them as feedstock supplies for 3D printing, mentioned Habib Dagher, government director of the ASCC.
The venture proposes an revolutionary strategy to recycle shredded wind turbine blade materials as an economical reinforcement and filler for large-scale 3D printing. By substituting brief carbon fibers with shredded and milled materials from wind blades, the group goals to attain mechanical recycling of 100% of the composite blade materials.
Analysis efforts will give attention to growing new compounding strategies to attain the mandatory adhesive bond energy of the composite materials. Ensuing pellets will function feedstock for large-format extrusion-based 3D printing, leveraging the ASCC’s superior manufacturing capabilities.
Along with the sustainability advantages of the analysis, the venture may gain advantage the worldwide precast concrete trade, which is valued at billions of {dollars} yearly. By integrating shredded wind turbine blade materials into the 3D printing course of for precast concrete formwork, the group goals to considerably scale back materials prices whereas offering geometric freedom for design and automating manufacturing processes.
This venture additionally addresses the important want for sustainable recycling of wind turbine blades and presents financial benefits for the development trade by reducing formwork prices and lowering labor bills.
The venture aligns with UMaine ASCC’s broader environmental objectives, aiming to scale back the environmental footprint of land and offshore wind vitality and growing environmentally pleasant feedstock for large-scale 3D printing processes.
A follow-on part would allow the event of bigger prototypes and deployment of case research with trade companions, in the end driving wider adoption of sustainable practices in wind vitality recycling.
The WIND REWIND group members main this venture submission embrace college and researchers from the ASCC, the Division of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Division of Mechanical Engineering, and trade (Dr. Roberto Lopez-Anido, Dr. Reed Miller, Dr. Amrit Verma, John Arimond, Dr. Habib Dagher, Hannah Berten, and Ed Pilpel). This venture is led by Dr. Lopez-Anido with coordination help from Dr. Miller and Dr. Luis Zambrano-Cruzatty.
The ASCC is growing this novel strategy of repurposing wind blade supplies with its world recognition and management in composite supplies, large-format superior manufacturing and the floating offshore wind trade. ASCC is residence to the world’s largest thermoplastic 3D printer with initiatives corresponding to BioHome3D, the world’s solely 100% bio-based 3D printed home, and 3Dirigo, the primary ever 3D printed boat. With the most important group in america devoted to floating offshore wind, ASCC is a worldwide chief with the VolturnUS hull expertise and dedication to innovation inside the trade.
Contact: Taylor Ward, [email protected]