GB2606215A - Blade recycling system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A blade recycling system for recycling one or more blades of one or more off-shore wind turbines, wherein the system includes: (i) a ship arrangement (100) including a crane arrangement (120) that is configured to receive the one or more blades (40) from the one or more off-shore wind turbines (10) and to move the one or more blades (40) to a deck region (110) of the ship arrangement (100); (ii) a cutting tool arrangement that is configured to cut each of the one or more blades (40) into a plurality of corresponding sections; (iii) a storage arrangement (130) that is configured to store the plurality of sections; (iv) a fragmenting arrangement that is configured to fragment the plurality of sections into granular fragments; and (v) a pyrolysis arrangement that is configured to process the granular fragments to generate a combustible fuel component and a solid component.

Description

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BLADE RECYCLING SYSTEM AND METHOD

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to blade recycling systems for recycling 5 blades of wind turbines. Moreover, the present disclosure relates to methods for (namely, to methods of) recycling blades of wind turbines.

BACKGROUND

Wind turbines have been known since the times of the Crusades, namely circa 1000 years ago, from the Middle East; the wind turbines used simple turbine blades manufactured from wood and cloth, wherein the wind turbines enabled pumping of water for irrigation purposes to be achieved. In mediaeval times, wind turbines were manufactured from wood and mounted on conical stone towers for purposes of generating mechanical power for milling grain and also for pumping water for drainage purposes, for example in the Netherlands. More recently, wind turbines have been used for generating electricity, wherein the wind turbines include blades that are manufactured from high-performance light-weight materials such as carbon-fibre reinforced composite materials and fibreglass reinforced composite materials.

A contemporary wind turbine often includes a plurality of blades, usually three blades, that are mounted to a rotatable shaft that is supported at a nacelle. The nacelle houses a gear box whose input shaft is coupled to the rotatable shaft, and whose output shaft is coupled to an electrical generator. The electrical generator is also housed in the nacelle. The nacelle is mounted at an upper portion of a cylindrical or frustoconical tower. The cylindrical power is usually mounted on a foundation, whether on-shore or off-shore. Optionally, for off-shore deployment, the cylindrical tower is mounted on a floating foundation that is tethered to a seabed region.

During operation, the aforesaid blades are subject to flexural motion that 5 eventually causes work-hardening of the aforesaid composite materials; after circa 40 years of operation, contemporary wind turbine blades suffer fibre fractures that potentially render the blades prone to gross mechanical failure. Whereas the cylindrical tower is often fabricated from steel or concrete, or a combination thereof, that is relatively 10 straightforward to recycle, the aforesaid blades are manufactured from composite materials that are more challenging to recycle.

In view of the challenges of anthropogenically-forced climate change resulting from burning of fossil fuels, wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels have shown themselves to be a least expensive way, and also most quickly deployable approach, to generate electrical power that would otherwise be generated from burning fossil fuels or from performing fission reactions in nuclear reactors (that generates large quantities of environmentally-dangerous nuclear waste). Contemporary rates of deployment of wind turbines are so great that it is envisaged that there will be large numbers of wind turbine blades that will need to be decommissioned within the next 20 to 40 years. Whereas it is feasible to bury work-hardened turbine blades in ground without causing any significant environmental pollution, such a manner of disposal represents a waste of resources, because materials used to manufacture the blades are susceptible to being recycled with major benefits for human society, for example pursuant to the present disclosure.

In a published Chinese patent application, CN108384571A, "Recovery 30 treatment process of wind turbine blade scrap" (Inventors: Zhu Dasheng, Zhang Wenquan, Li Xiuzhen, Wang Kewei, Ji Yaojie; Applicant: Nanjing -3 -Institute of Technology), there is described a recovery and treatment process for recycling wind turbine blade scrap. The process comprises following steps: (i) crushing the wind turbine blade scrap; (ii) processing the crushed wind turbine blade scrap in a furnace by carrying out hydropyrolysis to obtain pyrolysis gas and a solid product from the crushed wind turbine blade scrap; (iii) introducing the pyrolysis gas into a rapid cooling tower to obtain pyrolysis oil, water vapor and a tail gas; (iv) heating and hydrogenating the pyrolysis oil for carrying out a catalytic cracking reaction so as to obtain jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas; and (v) detecting and treating the tail gas of flue gas, and then discharging the treated tail gas into atmosphere.

The process is described as being capable of changing the wind turbine blade scrap into valuable recycled by-products, in an energy-saving and environmentally-friendly manner.

However, the published Chinese patent application, CN108384571A, overlooks a technical problem of recovering wind turbine blades in a most efficient manner and how to recycle effectively the solid product resulting from performing aforesaid hydropyrolysis. Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with conventional recycling of wind turbine blades.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure seeks to provide an improved blade recycling system. Moreover, the present disclosure seeks to provide an improved 30 method for using the improved blade recycling system to recycle wind turbine blades. Furthermore, the present disclosure also provides an improved building product manufactured from a solid component generated by the aforesaid blade recycling system when recycling wind turbine blades. Additionally, the present disclosure provides an improved method for manufacturing the aforesaid improved building product. An aim of the present disclosure is to provide a solution that overcomes at least partially the aforesaid problems encountered in prior art.

In a first aspect, the present disclosure provides a blade recycling system for recycling one or more blades of one or more off-shore wind turbines, 10 wherein the system includes: (i) a ship arrangement including a crane arrangement that is configured to receive the one or more blades from the one or more off-shore wind turbines and to move the one or more blades to a deck region of the ship arrangement; (ii) a cutting tool arrangement that is configured to cut each of the one or more blades into a plurality of corresponding sections; (iii) a storage arrangement that is configured to store the plurality of sections; (iv) a fragmenting arrangement that is configured to fragment the plurality of sections into granular fragments; and (v) a pyrolysis arrangement that is configured to process the granular fragments to generate a combustible fuel component and a solid component.

The invention is of advantage in that the blade recycling system is more 25 efficiently capable of recycling wind turbine blades to provide useful recycled products, for example combustible fuel and construction materials. -5 -

Optionally, in the blade recycling system, the cutting tool arrangement includes one or more of: (i) water jet cutters; (ii) reciprocating and/or rotary cutters; (iii) carbon dioxide laser cutters; and (iv) impact cutters that locally shock-shatter material of the blades, to cut each blade into its corresponding plurality of sections.

Optionally, in the blade recycling system, the cutting tool arrangement is included, at least in part, on the ship arrangement.

Optionally, in the blade recycling system, the storage arrangement is implemented as a hold of the ship arrangement. More optionally, in the blade recycling system, the fragmenting arrangement is included in the ship arrangement so that the ship arrangement is configured to offload the fragmented granules when docked in a harbour.

Optionally, in the blade recycling system, the ship arrangement is configured to process a plurality of blades for each visit the ship arrangement makes to a wind turbine park in which the one or more wind turbines are deployed.

In a second aspect, the present disclosure provides a method for using a 20 blade recycling system for recycling one or more blades of one or more off-shore wind turbines, wherein the method includes: (i) configuring a ship arrangement including a crane arrangement to receive the one or more blades from the one or more off-shore wind turbines and to move the one or more blades to a deck region of the ship arrangement; (ii) configuring a cutting tool arrangement to cut each of the one or more blades into a plurality of corresponding sections; (iii) configuring a storage arrangement to store the plurality of sections; (iv) configuring a fragmenting arrangement to fragment the plurality of sections into granular fragments; and (v) configuring a pyrolysis arrangement to process the granular fragments to generate a combustible fuel component and a solid component.

In a third aspect, the present disclosure provides a building product including a solid component generated by a blade recycling system of the first aspect, wherein the solid component includes at least one of glass fibres and carbon fibres derived from one or more wind turbine blades, and wherein the solid component is bound with an ash component and a cement component in the building product.

Optionally, the building product includes a plurality of gas voids formed therein, so that the building product is capable of functioning as thermally-insulating building cladding material.

In a fourth aspect, the present disclosure provides a method for manufacturing the building product of the third aspect, wherein the method includes: (i) binding the solid component, an ash component and a cement component to form the building product, wherein the solid component includes at least one of glass fibres and carbon fibres derived from one or more wind turbine blades.

Embodiments of the present disclosure substantially eliminate, or at least partially address, the aforementioned problems in the prior art, and enable a vehicle that causes its own propulsion and adjustment of 25 direction of travel without ejection of reaction mass to be realized.

Additional aspects, advantages, features and objects of the present disclosure would be made apparent from the drawings and the detailed description of the illustrative embodiments construed in conjunction with the appended claims that follow.

It will be appreciated that features of the present disclosure are susceptible to being combined in various combinations without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The summary above, as well as the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the present disclosure, exemplary constructions of the disclosure are shown in the drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed herein. Moreover, those skilled in the art will understand that the drawings are not to scale. Wherever possible, like elements have been indicated by identical numbers.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of 15 example only, with reference to the following diagrams wherein: FIG. 1 is an illustration of a contemporary wind turbine include a tower, a nacelle, and a rotor including three wind turbine blades; FIG. 2 is an illustration of a blade recycling system of the present

disclosure; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of steps of a method for using the blade recycling system of FIG. 2 to recycle blades of the contemporary wind turbine of FIG. 1.

In the accompanying drawings, an underlined number is employed to represent an item over which the underlined number is positioned or an item to which the underlined number is adjacent. A non-underlined number relates to an item identified by a line linking the non-underlined number to the item. When a number is non-underlined and accompanied by an associated arrow, the non-underlined number is used to identify a general item at which the arrow is pointing. -a -

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description illustrates embodiments of the present disclosure and ways in which they can be implemented. Although some modes of carrying out the present disclosure have been disclosed, those skilled in the art will recognize that other embodiments for carrying out or practising the present disclosure are also possible.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a wind turbine indicated generally by 10. The wind turbine 10 includes a frustoconical tower 20 onto which is mounted a nacelle 30. Three blades 40 of a rotor are mounted to a central shaft 50 that is rotatably mounted to the nacelle 30, wherein the central shaft 50 is coupled via a gearbox (not shown) to an electrical generator (not shown) accommodated within the nacelle 30. Each blade 40 has an elongate axis that intersects orthogonally with a central axis of the central shaft 50. Moreover, each blade 40 is rotatable about its elongate axis to vary a pitch angle of the blade 40.

The blades 40 are usually manufactured from a composite material, for example a combination of fibres encapsulated within a polymer resin. The fibres include, for example, carbon fibres, glass fibres, metal fibres, or a combination thereof. Materials for the wind-turbine blade market include resins of glass fibre reinforced polyester, glass fibre reinforced epoxy, and carbon fibre reinforced epoxy. Moreover, the blades 40 include a plurality of cavities therein, so that the blades 40 are both mechanically strong and yet relatively lightweight. Optionally, channels are included in the blades 40 for flow of a cooling fluid that is used to cool at least one of the aforesaid gearbox and the aforesaid electrical generator. Thus, it will be appreciated that the blades 40 are complex 3-dimensional structures that are complex to dismantle.

During wind-turbine construction, the blades 40 are hoisted using a crane, and then proximate ends of the blades 40 are coupled to the -9 -central shaft 50, for example using a bolting arrangement. Correspondingly, a crane is used for dennounting the blades 40 from the central shaft 50 when the blades 40 have been in use for a period of several years. When the wind turbine 10 is mounted off-shore, the crane is conveniently mounted on a ship. When the wind turbine 10 has a diameter of 150 metres, each of the blades 40 is circa 75 metres in length and weighs around 25 tonnes.

Referring next to FIG. 2, there is a schematic diagram of an off-shore wind turbine park including a plurality of the wind turbines 10, and a 10 blade recycling system that is configured to serve the off-shore wind turbine park. The blade recycling system includes a ship 100.

When the blades 40 of the wind turbines 10 reach an end of their operating lifetime, the ship 100 is used to demount the blades 40. The ship 100 includes a deck 110 that is sufficiently long to receive one or more of the blades 40 as the ship 100 sails within the wind turbine park, visiting wind turbines 10 to be serviced. The ship 100 includes a crane 120 that is configured to be used to support the blades 40 as they are decoupled from their respect central shafts 50, and to lift the blades 40 from their wind turbine 10 onto the deck 110 of the ship 100, alternatively optionally alongside the deck 110.

When the ship 100 is at sea, each of the demounted blades 40 are cut into a plurality of corresponding sections using a cutting tool arrangement (not shown). The cutting tool arrangement is configured to use one or more of: (i) water jet cutters; (ii) reciprocating and/or rotary cutters; (iii) carbon dioxide laser cutters; and (iv) impact cutters that locally shock-shatter material of the blades to cut each blade 40 into its corresponding plurality of sections.

Items (i) to (iv) corresponds to one or more mutually different cutting tool functionalities of the cutting tool arrangement that can be used in combination; alternatively, the one or more different cutting tool functionalities of the cutting tool arrangement can be used selectively to cut up mutually different portions of the blades 40. Water jet cutting is of benefit in that any cutting dust generated from cutting the blades 40 into corresponding sections is swept away and immobilized by the water, so that the dust does not represent an environmental or health hazard, as the water immobilized the dust; moreover, if channels of the blades 40 include cooling fluids, for example cooling oil, use of water jet cutting avoids any risk of remnants of the cooling fluids catching fire as heat is generated during cutting of the blades 40. Carbon dioxide laser cutting is of benefit in that generation of cutting dust can be largely avoided when cutting the blades 40 into the corresponding plurality of sections. The sections are each optionally in a range of 1 to 20 metres in length, more optionally in a range of 3 to 10 metres in length. The sections are beneficially moved via a conveyor system (not shown) into a hold 130 of the ship 100, wherein the sections are stored. Beneficially, the hold 130 has a sufficient capacity to house sections derived from cutting up a plurality of blades 40 so that the ship 100 is able to collect a plurality of blades 40 for each trip that it makes to the wind turbine park. Optionally, the hold 130 includes a crushing arrangement (not shown) for crushing the sections into a granulated form, for example into fragments having a granular diameter in a range of 5 mm to 20 cm, more optionally in a range of 1 cm to 3 cm. The crushing arrangement is optionally implemented using a hydraulic crushing arrangement, by using a hollow rotating drum in which the fragments become granulated by mutual abrasion, by using a laser cutter, or similar. By cutting the blades 40 into sections and then granulating the sections in the hold 130, the ship 100 is able to receive and process more blades 40 than would possible if the ship 100 were merely to receive and transport complete decommissioned blades 40 to harbour for processing at the harbour. Optionally, granulating the sections can, at least in part, be performed at the harbour where the ship 100 docks to unload turbine blade 40 material from its hold 130.

When the ship 100 returns from the wind turbine park and docks in the harbour, the ship 100 uploads the turbine blade 40 material from its hold 130, for example via a conveyor belt arrangement linking the hold 130 with a dockside storage quay at the harbour. The dockside storage quay is beneficially equipped with a pyrolysis apparatus, for example as described in the aforesaid published Chinese patent application CN108384571A (see appended APPENDIX 1 and APPENDIX 2 below), that processes the turbine blade 40 material received from the ship 100; the pyrolysis apparatus processes the turbine blade 40 material to generate a fuel and a solid product from the crushed wind turbine blade 40 material. Optionally, the fuel is processed to provide jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas. Optionally, at least a portion of the fuel generated is used for propelling the ship 100 when collecting and processing blades 40 that are decommission from the aforesaid wind turbine park.

The solid product includes residual fibres, especially when the blades 40 are manufactured from glass fibre composite. The residual fibres are fragmented from the hydropyrolysis and are therefore unsuitable for being used in the manufacture of new turbine blades. However, the solid product generated from the aforesaid hydropyrolysis is beneficially used when manufacturing building materials, wherein the fragments of glass fibres, optionally also carbon fibres if present, provide enhanced strength to the building materials. For example, the solid product can be mixed with ashes of coal and cement to manufacture breeze blocks. Optionally, the cement used is of a type similar to Portland® cement, wherein Portland® cement is made up of four main compounds: tricalcium silicate -12 - (3Ca0 * Si02), dicalcium silicate (2Ca0 * 5i02), tricalcium alunninate (3Ca0 * A1203), and a tetra-calcium alunninoferrite (4Ca0 * A1203Fe203). Optionally, a foaming agent is added to the cement, so that the breeze blocks have a structure of a solid insulating foam, for example that is suitable for manufacturing thermal insulating panels that are suitable for cladding an outside of buildings. Optionally, the foaming agent is a detergent foaming agent or a protein foaming agent.

In the foregoing, it will be appreciated that contemporary wind turbines 10 have rotor diameters approaching 150 metres, wherein the blades 40 have a length of circa 75 metres in length. Optionally, the ship 100 is configured to retain decommissioned blades 40 temporarily suspended (namely hung) in a parallel manner alongside a hull of the ship 100, and then subsequently to move the suspended blades 40 onto the deck 110 of the ship 100 for processing, namely to be cut up into sections as described in the foregoing. In other words, blades 40 can be optionally suspended alongside the hull of the ship 100, or towed behind the hull of the ship 100, until available space becomes available on-board the deck 110 to cut the blades 40 into corresponding sections. Debris from such cutting can be added to material to be hydropyrolized after removal of cutting water, when water jet cutting is employed to generate the sections.

Referring next to FIG. 3, there are shown steps of a method for (namely, a method of) processing wind turbine blades 40. In a first step 200, the method includes dennounting one or more wind turbine blades 40 from a wind turbine 10 and placing the one or more demounted wind turbine blades 40 onto a deck 110 of a ship 100. In a second step 210, the method includes cutting each of the one or more wind turbine blades 40 into a plurality of corresponding sections. In a third step 220, the method includes fragmenting the one or more sections into corresponding fragments and then granulating the fragments, for example fragmenting -13 -to granular sizes as described in the foregoing; the third step 220 is performed on the ship 100 or in a harbour whereat the ship 100 docks, or a combination thereof. In a fourth step 230, the method includes processing the granulated fragments using hydropyrolsis to generate a solid waste and a fuel. In a fifth step 240, the method includes processing the solid waste to manufacture a building product, for example breeze blocks, cladding thermal insulating panels for buildings, and so forth (for example, as described in the foregoing).

Although use of a hydropyrolysis process as described in the published Chinese patent application CN108384571A can be used for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure, it will be appreciated that other pyrolysis processes to decompose the fragments when granulated can alternatively be used. Such alternative processes involve heating the fragments when granulated to a sufficient temperature (in an inert atmosphere, for example in an inert Nitrogen atmosphere) for resin in a composite material, used to manufacture the fragments, decomposes into lower molecular weight hydrocarbons from which a combustible fuel can be derived, leaving a fibre component of the fragments remaining as a solid waste. As aforementioned, to immobilize the fibre component in the solid waste to prevent it becoming an environmental hazard, the fibre component is beneficially mixed with cement and gravel and/or ash filler to manufacture building materials. The recycled fibre component provides the building materials with exception strength and durability.

Modifications to embodiments of the present disclosure described in the foregoing are possible without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the accompanying claims. Expressions such as "including", "comprising", "incorporating", "have", "is" used to describe and claim the present disclosure are intended to be construed in a nonexclusive manner, namely allowing for items, components or elements -14 -not explicitly described also to be present. Reference to the singular is also to be construed to relate to the plural.

-15 -APPENDIX 1: CN108384571A (machine translation) Title: "Recovery treatment process of wind turbine blade scrap" Inventors: Zhu Dasheng; Zhang Wenquan; Li Xiuzhen; Wang Kewei; Ji Yaiojie etal.

Applicants: Nanjing Institute of Technology, et al. Application number: CN201810256857 20180327 Priority number: CN201810256857 20180327 Abstract of CN108384571A: The invention discloses a recovery and treatment process of wind turbine blade scrap. The process comprises the following steps: crushing the wind turbine blade scrap, then enabling the scrap to get into a furnace and carrying out hydropyrolysis to obtain pyrolysis gas and a solid product; introducing the pyrolysis gas into a rapid cooling tower to obtain pyrolysis oil, water vapor and tail gas; heating and hydrogenating the pyrolysis oil for carrying out a catalytic cracking reaction so as to obtain jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas; finally, treating and detecting the tail gas of flue gas, and then discharging into the atmosphere. The process changes waste into valuable, and is high in wind turbine blade scrap recovery utilization rate, energy-saving and environmentally-friendly.

-16 -

DESCRIPTION OF APPLICATION CN108384571A

Wind power blade leftover material recovery treatment process

Technical field

[0001] The invention relates to a wind power blade leftover material recovery treatment process, which belongs to the technical field of energy saving and environmental protection.

Background technique

[0002] The prosperous development of the wind power industry in the past ten years has resulted in a large amount of wind power blade scraps.

At present, the blades of large wind turbines are basically composed of composite materials. The traditional treatment methods include landfill and incineration, but they require a large amount of land. The blades bring serious soil pollution and air pollution.

zo Summary of the invention

[0003] In order to solve the shortcomings of the prior art, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a wind turbine blade scrap recovery treatment process.

[0004] In order to achieve the above objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solution: hydrocatalyze the pyrolysis oil obtained after pyrolysis of wind power blade leftover material to obtain the required product, and then recycle it, which solves the problem of difficult recovery and treatment of wind power blade leftover material.

-17 -The problem [0008] The advantages of the present invention are: (1) hydrogenation in the pyrolysis furnace reduces the generation of solid coke, increases the generation rate of pyrolysis gas, and improves the utilization rate of waste; (2) the separated tail gas and cracked gas and part of the jet, wherein the combustion of fuel provides heat for the hydropyrolysis furnace, reduces energy consumption, and greatly improves the recovery rate of waste; (3) Rapid cooling of flue gas, removal of acid gas, removal of harmful substances such as smoke, heavy metals, etc., is conducive to the final emissions, reducing air pollution, and meeting the national green environmental sustainability requirements.

Description of the drawings

[0009] Figure 1 (of CN108384571A) is a process flow diagram of the 20 present invention.

Detailed description

[0010] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present 25 invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

[0011] The first step: crushing wind power blade leftover material to 30 facilitate the pyrolysis of wind power blade leftover material after entering the furnace; -18 - [0012] The second step: putting the broken wind power blade scraps into a hydropyrolysis furnace for pyrolysis, wherein the pyrolysis temperature is in a range of 400 to 550 °C to obtain pyrolysis gas and solid products; [0013] The third step: obtaining solid product is glass fiber, coke and filler, wherein the solid product is treated as a slag; [0014] The fourth step: Pass the pyrolysis gas into the rapid cooling tower to obtain pyrolysis oil, steam and tail gas. The cooling rate of the quench 10 tower is: {Formula} [0015] The fifth step: The obtained pyrolysis oil and steam are separated 15 by an oil-water separator; [0016] The sixth step: passing the separated pyrolysis oil into the hydrocatalytic cracking reactor, heated to produce a catalytic cracking reaction, wherein the pressure in the reaction vessel is in a range of 9 to 25 MPa, the reaction temperature is in a range of 380 to 480 °C, and jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas are obtained; [0017] The seventh step: passing the obtained jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas through a gas-liquid separator for gas-liquid separation; [0018] Eighth step: fractionatin the obtained jet fuel and cracked oil mixture to obtain jet fuel and cracked oil respectively; [0019] The ninth step: separating the tail gas from the rapid cooling 30 tower and the cracked gas obtained from the hydrocatalytic cracking of the pyrolysis oil, wherein a part of the jet fuel is passed into the heating -19 -device of the hydropyrolysis furnace, and burned to provide heat for the hydropyrolysis furnace; [0020] The tenth step: passing the flue gas after combustion in the ninth step into the quenching tower for cooling. The quenching tower uses about 3©/o to 5% of NaOH lye as the purification absorbent. On the one hand, the flue gas is mixed with the NaOH lye. The acidic gas in the flue gas and the NaOH lye undergo an acid-base neutralization reaction; on the other hand, the heat of the flue gas evaporates the water in the lye, and the reaction product of the lye and the flue gas becomes solid particles, which are attached to the lower part of the tower and the inner surface of the subsequent bag filter again chemically react with gaseous pollutants, so that the overall pollutant purification reaction efficiency is improved. Then pass into the neutralization and deacidification tower to absorb the acid gas in the flue gas by making the lye and gas turbulent; [0021] The eleventh step: passing the deacidified flue gas into a bag filter to remove harmful substances such as smoke and heavy metals in the flue gas, and discharging it into the atmosphere after testing. -20 -

APPENDIX 2: CLAIMS OF CN108384571A (machine translation) 1. A wind power blade scrap recovery treatment process, which is characterized by the following steps: Step 1: crushing wind power blade leftover material to facilitate the 10 pyrolysis of wind power blade leftover material after entering the furnace; Step 2: putting the broken wind power blade scraps into the hydropyrolysis furnace for pyrolysis to obtain pyrolysis gas and solid products; Step 3: treating the obtained solid product as glass fiber, coke and filler, and the solid product as a slag; Step 4: passing the pyrolysis gas into the rapid cooling tower to obtain zo pyrolysis oil, steam and tail gas; Step 5: separating the obtained pyrolysis oil and steam by user an oil-water separator; Step 6: passing the separated pyrolysis oil into the hydrocatalytic cracking reactor, heated to produce a catalytic cracking reaction, to obtain jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas; Step 7: passing the obtained jet fuel, cracked oil and cracked gas through 30 a gas-liquid separator for gas-liquid separation; -21 -Step 8: fractionating the obtained jet fuel and cracked oil mixture to obtain jet fuel and cracked oil respectively; Step 9: separating the tail gas from the rapid cooling tower, wherein the cracked gas obtained from the hydrocatalytic cracking of the pyrolysis oil and part of the jet fuel are passed into the heating device of the hydropyrolysis furnace, and burned to provide heat for the hydropyrolysis furnace; Step 10: passing the flue gas after combustion in the ninth step into the quenching tower for cooling, and then passing it into the neutralization and deacidification tower, wherein the acid gas in the flue gas is absorbed by turbulent lye and gas; and Step 11: passing the deacidified flue gas into a bag filter to remove harmful substances such as smoke and heavy metals in the flue gas, and discharging it into the atmosphere after testing.

2. The wind power blade scrap recovery treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the purpose of the hydrogenation in the second step is included to reduce the generation of solid coke, thereby increasing the generation rate of pyrolysis gas, and improving the utilization rate of waste.

3. The wind power blade scrap recovery treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the pyrolysis temperature of the hydropyrolysis furnace in the second step is in a range of 400 to 550°C, so as to generate more pyrolysis oil products.

-22 - 4. The wind power blade leftover material recovery treatment process according to claim 1, characterized in that: the cooling rate in the fourth step is: {Formula} 5. The wind power blade scrap recovery treatment process according to claim 1, wherein the reaction temperature of the hydrocatalytic cracking pyrolysis oil is in a range of 400 to 500 °C.

6. The wind power blade leftover material recovery treatment process according to claim 1, characterized in that: the quenching tower of the ninth step uses about 3% to 5% of NaOH lye as the purification absorbent; on the one hand, the flue gas and NaOH alkali Liquid mixing, the acidic gas in the flue gas and the NaOH lye undergo an acid-base neutralization reaction; on the other hand, the heat of the flue gas evaporates the water in the lye, and the reaction product of the lye and the flue gas becomes solid particulate matter, wherein the particulate matter is attached to the lower part of the tower and on the inner surface zo of the subsequent bag filter, and chemically reacts with gaseous pollutants again, so that the overall pollutant purification reaction efficiency is improved.

7. The wind power blade scrap recovery treatment process according to 25 claim 1, characterized in that: the hydrocatalytic cracking reaction conditions of the sixth step: pressure in a range of 9 to 25MPa, reaction temperature in a range of 380 to 480°C. -23 -

Claims (10)

1. CLAIMS1. A blade recycling system for recycling one or more blades of one or more off-shore wind turbines, wherein the system includes: (i) a ship arrangement (100) including a crane arrangement (120) that is configured to receive the one or more blades (40) from the one or more off-shore wind turbines (10) and to move the one or more blades (40) to a deck region (110) of the ship arrangement (100); (ii) a cutting tool arrangement that is configured to cut each of the one or more blades (40) into a plurality of corresponding sections; (iii) a storage arrangement (130) that is configured to store the plurality of sections; (iv) a fragmenting arrangement that is configured to fragment the plurality of sections into granular fragments; and (v) a pyrolysis arrangement that is configured to process the granular fragments to generate a combustible fuel component and a solid component.
2. 2. A blade recycling system of claim 1, wherein the cutting tool arrangement includes one or more of: (i) water jet cutters; (ii) reciprocating and/or rotary cutters; (iii) carbon dioxide laser cutters; and (iv) impact cutters that locally shock-shatter material of the blades (40), to cut each blade (40) into its corresponding plurality of sections.
3. -24 - 3. A blade recycling system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the cutting tool arrangement is included, at least in part, on the ship arrangement (100).
4. 4. A blade recycling system of claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the storage arrangement (130) is implemented as a hold of the ship arrangement (100).
5. 5. A blade recycling system of claim 3 or 4, wherein the fragmenting arrangement is included in the ship arrangement (100) so that the ship 10 arrangement (100) is configured to offload the fragmented granules when docked in a harbour.
6. 6. A blade recycling system of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the ship arrangement (100) is configured to process a plurality 15 of blades (40) for each visit the ship arrangement (100) makes to a wind turbine park in which the one or more wind turbines (10) are deployed.
7. 7. A method for using a blade recycling system for recycling one or more blades of one or more off-shore wind turbines, wherein the method includes: (i) configuring a ship arrangement (100) including a crane arrangement (120) to receive the one or more blades (40) from the one or more wind turbines (10) and to move the one or more blades (40) to a deck region (110) of the ship arrangement (100); (ii) configuring a cutting tool arrangement to cut each of the one or more blades (40) into a plurality of corresponding sections; -25 - (iii) configuring a storage arrangement (130) to store the plurality of sections; (iv) configuring a fragmenting arrangement to fragment the plurality of sections into granular fragments; and (v) configuring a pyrolysis arrangement to process the granular fragments to generate a combustible fuel component and a solid component.
8. 8. A building product including a solid component generated by a blade recycling system of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the solid component includes at least one of glass fibres and carbon fibres derived from one or more wind turbine blades (40), and wherein the solid component is bound with an ash component and a cement component in the building product.
9. 9. A building product of claim 8, wherein the building product includes a plurality of gas voids formed therein, so that the building product is capable of functioning as thermally-insulating building cladding material.
10. 10. A method for manufacturing the building product of claim 8 or 9, wherein the method includes: (i) binding the solid component, an ash component and a cement component to form the building product, wherein the solid component includes at least one of glass fibres and 25 carbon fibres derived from one or more wind turbine blades (40).