DITF joins Horizon Europe REWIND project

In May, the kick-off meeting for the “Efficient Decommissioning, Repurposing and Recycling to increase the Circularity of end-of-life Wind Energy Systems” (REWIND) project took place in Valencia, Spain. German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (DITF) is one of 14 partners from seven countries joining efforts to recycle composites waste in the wind energy sector.

REWIND deals with the recycling of wind turbine blades when they have reached the end of their service life. Project partners are developing basic technologies for dismantling the composite and methods for disassembling and evaluating the material. In the next step, recycling processes and options for reusing the composite materials will be developed. The aim is to make the wind turbine blades recyclable instead of landfilling or incinerating them.

At this first meeting, the research consortium discussed the objectives of the research project and the planning. The task of the DITF is to develop a yarn and a fabric for new components or for repair kits for wind turbines from the glass and carbon fibers recycled by the project partners.

The project is funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) of the European Union under grant agreement no. 101147226 and the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). 

Other partners include Aimplas, Techniker, IPC – Centre Technique Industriel de la Plasturgie et des Composites, Miljøskærm, Hochschule Pforzheim – Gestaltung, Technik, Wirtschaft und Recht, Alke Electric Vehicles, Suez Group, Bcircular, Composite Patch, TPI Composites Inc., R-Nanolab, CiaoTech-Gruppo PNO and Aemac.