SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): Tennessee, U.S. -based recycler Carbon Rivers announced that it has commercialized a new process to efficiently recycle wind turbine blades. The project was funded by a grant from Wind Energy Technologies Office under the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE).

The process recovers high-purity glass fibers from wind turbine blades, which in turn could be remelted and reused in other useful applications. It uses pyrolysis process, which uses intense heat energy to break down and separate organic components. Also, the process results in creation of synthetic forms of natural gas and crude oil, called syngas and pyrolysis oil respectively. The company intends to process up to 50,000 metric tons of used wind turbines per year.

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A part of its business will be separated into a separate entity called Windfall Inc., which will be responsible for developing a full-fledged glass fiber recycling facility in Knoxville, Tennessee. The proposed facility will have capacity to process around 5,000 fiberglass wind turbine blades every year.

Eva Li, chief engineering officer and senior scientist at Carbon Rivers noted that the process is considered a major milestone in the development of technologies that aid upcycling of materials from used wind turbines.