Current happenings- What's new!

 What's New!

On this weeks conveyer belt of flashing news in the realm of chemical engineering, lets look at what's "popping", shall we?

 

What particularly struck our eyesight this week, was a very innovative reach about "Recycling win turbines" with Chemical processes. 

The approach is taken up by Vestas, which is the energy industry's global partner on sustainable energy solutions. Seeing as their motive is "sustainability", it makes sense that their vision for 2023 till 2025 will be wind turbines' blades- which often end up as waste in landmines while the other components of the turbine are recycled or reused. seems rather lonely for the blades, right? Well, not for long, because Vestas is looking to commercialize a new chemical process that could break down all epoxy based turbine blades for reuse. 

Scientists and energy companies have been experimenting with new formulations to be able to recycle spent wind turbines for years. Luckily, Vestas, the Olin Corporations, The Danish Technological Institute and Aarhus University could help evade blade redesign, which is a very tedious process, and reuse epoxy-based wind turbines. These turbines could already be in use, or be stashed away in a landfill.

Lisa Ekstrand, the Vice President and Head of Sustainability at Vestas says that Epoxy-based blades can now be viewed as a source of raw material. She also mentions that once the technology is implemented, blade materials can even be disassembled or and reused. The material of the wind blade will now be built with another design approach and manufactured in such a way that it can be recycled or reused. 

With widely available chemicals being used, the process of the break down involves breaking down of the epoxy resin and recover it as virgin-grade raw material for the manufacture of new wind turbines or any compatible products. 

Their next goal would be to commercialize their creation. 

Stay tuned for more current happenings in the chemical engineering world, Happy Learning!