Multilayered Fabrication Containing Wind Turbine Blade Solid Wastes for High-Performance Composite Fibers.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Composite Materials
• Sustainable Engineering

Background:

• Wind turbine blade (WTB) waste presents a significant disposal challenge due to its large volume and complex composite structure.
• Current disposal methods for WTB waste are environmentally burdensome and economically inefficient.
• There is a growing need for innovative recycling strategies to repurpose WTB materials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for repurposing WTB-derived glass fibers (GF) into high-performance polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-GF composite fibers.
• To investigate the impact of WTB-GF incorporation on the thermal and mechanical properties of PAN fibers.
• To assess the potential of these composite fibers for advanced applications through heat treatment into carbonized fibers (CF).

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a scalable dry-jet wet spinning and forced assembly process to create multilayered PAN-GF composite fibers.
• Precisely controlling layer thickness to the micrometer scale by integrating alternating layers of PAN and PAN-GF.
• Characterizing the thermal and mechanical properties of the composite fibers using tensile testing and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

Main Results:

• The 256-layered composite fibers exhibited significant improvements: a 54.7% increase in stiffness (modulus) and a 27.2% increase in tensile strength compared to pure PAN fibers.
• Increased glass fiber content enhanced thermal stability, with higher residual weight at 900 °C, indicating greater char yield.
• The 256-layered 10PAN-4GF fibers achieved the highest residual mass (41.23 wt %), demonstrating effective thermal stabilization by GF reinforcement.

Conclusions:

• The developed process offers a sustainable pathway for WTB waste valorization, transforming it into high-performance composite fibers.
• The resulting PAN-GF composite fibers show enhanced mechanical and thermal properties, suitable for demanding applications.
• Further heat treatment yields carbonized fibers with exceptional stability, ideal for aerospace and space exploration.