# Utilization of Wind Turbine Blade Waste in the Production of ABS Composites and Selected Products Based on These Composites

## TL;DR

This paper explores using waste from wind turbine blades to create ABS composites, showing a potential recycling solution for blade waste.

## Contribution

The novelty lies in demonstrating a practical method to repurpose wind turbine blade waste into thermoplastic composites using ABS.

## Key findings

- Composites with 30 wt% GRm and 7 wt% ACM-G2 can be hot-pressed into quality panels.
- The composite's reduced viscosity allows successful extrusion of profiles.
- Using WTB waste in ABS matrix creates a fully secondary raw material composite.

## Abstract

The paper presents studies on the use of waste from wind turbine blades (WTBs) in the production of thermoplastic composites and regranulate-based products of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) copolymers. Composites containing two types of WTB fractions (finely milled fraction—GRm and dust fraction—GRd) were produced using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. During extrusion, different screw configurations of the plasticizing system as well as different material formulations were investigated. The studied composites contained from 10 to 70 wt% of shredded WTB, as well as up to 15 wt% of additional components, mainly those improving impact strength and processing properties. It was found that the individual WTB fractions generally deteriorate the mechanical properties of ABS. However, a composite containing 30 wt% GRm and modified with an additional 7 wt% ACM-G2 (impact modifier type) can be hot-pressed into good quality panels. It can also be successfully used to produce profiles in the extrusion process, mainly due to its significantly reduced viscosity. The studies presented in this article showed one of the possible ways of using WTB waste. It is advantageous because it uses WTB waste in a thermoplastic ABS matrix, which is also a secondary raw material. As a consequence of this, a completely new composite material based wholly on secondary raw materials can be obtained, which can be subjected to multiple processing.