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Journal article
Life Cycle Assessment to Quantify Global Warming and Human Health-Respiratory Impacts of Using Composites from Waste Wind Turbine Blades as Feedstock for Cement Clinker and Fiberglass Production
Environmental science & technology, v 59(40), pp 21476-21485
01 Oct 2025
PMID: 41035167
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Abstract
The wind energy sector is a growing contributor to global electricity generation. The increasing deployment of wind turbines also creates significant waste when turbine materials reach their end-of-life. Glass fiber reinforced polymer composites, which comprise the majority of a wind turbine blade's mass, are difficult to separate into their component parts for recycling. This study employs a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of utilizing waste wind turbine blade material in cement clinker and fiberglass production. We find that incorporating waste blades as 15% of the feedstock in a cement clinker production plant reduces global warming and human health-respiratory impacts by 9 and 34%, respectively, compared to using virgin materials only. For a fiberglass plant, this substitution increases global warming impacts by 11% but decreases respiratory health impacts by 3%. Each kilogram of secondary product diverts approximately 0.25-0.32 kg of WTB waste from landfills. The projected rate of blade decommissioning of ∼800,000 tonnes per year would replace less than 1% of the overall virgin material demand for the cement clinker industry and up to 8% for the fiberglass industry, indicating plenty of capacity for these industries to accommodate this waste blade material in their feedstocks.
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Details
- Title
- Life Cycle Assessment to Quantify Global Warming and Human Health-Respiratory Impacts of Using Composites from Waste Wind Turbine Blades as Feedstock for Cement Clinker and Fiberglass Production
- Creators
- Caroline V Cameron - Drexel UniversitySabrina Spatari - Technion – Israel Institute of TechnologyJason B Baxter - Drexel UniversityMegan A Creighton (Corresponding Author) - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Environmental science & technology, v 59(40), pp 21476-21485
- Publisher
- ACS Publications; WASHINGTON
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems: CBET-2350073 NSF: 2023709 BSF Stein Family Fellowship Longsview Fellowship of Drexel University The authors acknowledge NSF CBET-2350073 and BSF 2023709, as well as the Stein Family Fellowship and Longsview Fellowship of Drexel University, for support of this work.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; Chemical and Biological Engineering
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001585992300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105018580592
- Other Identifier
- 991022121132604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Engineering, Environmental
- Environmental Sciences