Chinese researchers find new way to use old wind turbine blades for road pavement

Chinese researchers have discovered a new way to recycle retired wind turbine blades and use them as road pavement materials.

Reports from a local news outlet on 12 February show that the method was developed by a team at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The team leader Tang Zhicheng said the discovery will boost the renewable energy industry and  help towards achieving China’s dual carbon goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and attaining carbon neutrality by 2060.

A timely intervention

This new method of recycling wind turbine blades couldn’t have come at a better time, as China is expecting the retirement of a large number of wind turbine blades after over 25 years of use.

Without proper recycling, the blades can be a huge nuisance because of their size and chemical composition. 

Recycling them is also expensive because of the properties of the blades, so finding use for them in road construction is an important discovery.

By leveraging those unique properties that make turbine blades difficult to handle i.e. lightweight, high strength, and corrosion resistance, the researchers have found a way to crush them and use them in asphalt mixtures and cement concrete used for road construction.

The application of this asphalt mixture has been tested on a road section in collaboration with a local road construction company in September last year, and it has shown promise.

According to the construction company, the road surface exhibited no cracks, rutting, or material detachment after five months of operation, indicating the suitability of this mixture.

The team will test the technology on more road projects this year to establish its suitability in different scenarios in collaboration with other researchers and partners.

One of many discoveries

Chinese scientists have been at the forefront of many discoveries recently, and the reuse of retired wind turbine blades is just one of them.

One of the greatest discoveries so far is how to manufacture rocket fuel in space using CO2, thus revolutionizing space travel and exploration.