THAT WAS EASY:

A team of Denmark-based researchers say they've found a novel way to break down the tough plastic that makes up wind-turbine blades, recovering useful materials in the process.

As described in a new paper in the journal Nature, the researchers, from Aarhus University and the Danish Technological Institute, have developed a novel chemical process in which the blade material is submerged in a solvent spiked with a catalyst called ruthenium, and heated to 160°C.

After several days in this mixture, the blade material is broken down into its constituent parts, including bisphenol A (an expensive and useful material for building new composites), and the intact carbon and glass fibres that were embedded in the original material.

In their study, the researchers applied the method to unmodified epoxy resins as well as to commercial composites - epoxy-based products that had been created and used in practice, including the shell of a wind turbine blade.

The paper presents a proof of concept that these materials can be broken down into usable, retrievable parts.

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