Tennessee company recycles old wind turbine blades into 99.9% pure glass fibre

Retired wind turbine blades are becoming a growing waste challenge as older turbines reach the end of their operating lives, but a Tennessee company is developing a way to recover valuable material from them instead of sending the blades to landfill. Carbon Rivers, a Knoxville-based advanced materials company, uses a heat-based process to separate glass fibre from the polymers and resins that hold turbine blades together. The US Department of Energy has reported that the company achieved 99.9% purity in recovered glass fibre, creating the possibility of using the material again in products such as composite panels, construction materials and 3D-printing filament. The technology has received millions of dollars in federal support and research collaboration with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.