Abstract:
With the rapid development of the wind power industry, a large number of retired wind turbine blades (WTB) have reached the end of their service life and entered the scrapping stage. These blades are mainly composed of glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resin composites, which feature stable structures and are difficult to dispose of through conventional methods. Therefore, developing green and efficient resource recycling tech-nologies is of great practical significance. The combined recycling technology integrating solvent pretreatment and pyrolysis is one of the most promising recycling approaches. In this study, three solvents including dipro-pylene glycol methyl ether (DPM), N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) and acetone were adopted. The effects of sol-vent type, pretreatment duration and pyrolysis temperature on pyrolysis product distribution, pyrolysis gas composition, chemical constituents of pyrolysis oil and properties of recycled glass fibers were systematically investigated. The optimal process parameters were determined. The experimental results indicate that the polari-ty and swelling capacity of solvents largely govern the weakening effect on epoxy resin matrix. Among all test-ed solvents, acetone presents outstanding swelling performance, which can effectively destroy the three-dimensional cross-linked network of epoxy resin and facilitate the progress of resin pyrolysis. Under low-temperature pyrolysis conditions, acetone pretreatment achieves a pyrolysis oil yield of 66.0 wt.%, which great-ly improves the resin decomposition efficiency. Pyrolysis temperature serves as a core factor balancing resin removal efficiency and structural integrity of glass fibers. Insufficient pyrolysis at low temperatures leads to incomplete resin decomposition, leaving abundant char residues and polymer debris attached to fiber surfaces, which results in low cleanliness and poor reusability of recycled fibers. Excessively high temperature will cause thermal damage to glass fibers, forming surface defects such as microcracks and pits and sharply deteriorating their mechanical properties. Experimental verification confirms that 400 °C is the optimal pyrolysis tempera-ture under acetone pretreatment. At this temperature, the matrix resin can be efficiently removed while the orig-inal morphology and structural properties of glass fibers are well preserved. The tensile strength of recycled fibers at 400 °C is 6.7% higher than that at 480 °C. In contrast, solvent category and pretreatment time exert relatively slight influences on fiber mechanical properties. GC-MS analysis demonstrates that pyrolysis oil is mainly composed of phenol and its alkyl-substituted phenolic derivatives, which are rich in high-value chemi-cal intermediates such as bisphenol A and possess great potential for resource utilization. Pyrolysis gas is domi-nated by CO2, H2, CO and low-carbon hydrocarbons. Targeted regulation of pyrolysis gas composition can be realized by adjusting solvent type and pyrolysis temperature to meet diverse energy utilization demands. This proposed process is simple to operate and highly practical, which can provide reliable technical support for the large-scale, low-carbon and cyclic utilization of retired wind turbine blades.