School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement

CIRCULARITY IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: REVERSE SUPPLY CHAIN
FOR DECOMMISSIONED WIND TURBINE COMPONENTS IN CIVIL
INFRASTRUCTURE APPLICATIONS

By YULIZZA HENAO-BARRAGAN

Advisors:

Dr. RUSSELL GENTRY (ARCH)

Dr. EMILY GRUBERT (CEE)

Committee Members: 

Dr. VALERIE THOMAS (ISYE)

Dr. JOE BOZEMAN III (CEE)

Dr. MATTHEW KOREY (ORNL)

Date and Time:  May, 24, 2024.  10:00 AM EST

Location: Kendeda 210/ bit.ly/3wCtcGz

To achieve carbon neutrality in the United States, wind farm expansion is required
and expected, motivating partial or full repowering and decommissioning of wind
farms. While the positive trend in wind energy production is promising for the
renewable energy industry, it has also increased the amount of nonbiodegradable
blade waste. The composite material nature of wind turbine blades
makes it difficult to manage at end-of-life due to the lack of implementable
solutions that manage Fiber-Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) sustainably and economically, and therefore, most wind blades end up in landfills.

Repurposing
the material in the wind turbine blades can preserve the highest possible value of
the decommissioned blade. While composite recycling technologies exist to
different degrees, not all are available at scales relevant to the wind energy
industry, and there are significant limitations to more widespread industrial
adoption of these technologies in the United States. Repurposing blades at an
element level could enable the highest-value recovery of a final product (i.e.,
bridges, sound barriers, transmission poles, etc.) rather than molecular
constituents/precursors. The decision process around wind turbine blade end-oflife
practices requires the identification of supply chain constraints from the
moment the blade is deemed to be decommissioned until its final destination or
disposal. Stakeholder decision-making, economic impacts, and environmental
emissions can help navigate the challenges and inform the most suitable end-oflife
approach for decommissioned wind blades. This work provides the
stakeholder decision-making for decommissioning wind turbines, and the
logistics, environmental impacts, and cost structures of repurposing wind turbine
blades as high-voltage transmission poles, called the BladePole. This work
highlights that component reuse in construction is sufficiently promising to
motivate stakeholders to implement structural reuse as part of circularity in
construction materials, leading to reduced waste while reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. Compared with conventional steel poles and end-of-life wind blade
applications, BladePole has the lowest overall greenhouse gas emissions and
costs. This study quantifies and locates what type of blades will be
decommissioned and what new high-voltage transmission lines will be installed
to improve supply-demand interconnection and provide stakeholders with the
commercial path to using decommissioned blades in repurposing applications
like the BladePole. This work also presents the importance of quantifying
material decommissioning not just by weight but also by type, location, quantity,
and time of decommissioning.