APPLYING THE MECO PRINCIPLE TOASSESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OFCONVENTIONAL AND BIO-BASED COMPOSITEMATERIALS IN A CASE STUDY OFA SMALL-SCALE WIND TURBINE BLADE

摘要

The MECO-principle has been used for benchmarking conventional and bio-based composite materials in an environmental impact context. Material characterisation has been performed on composites with a standard carbon fibre fabric, a flax fibre fabric and a flax/carbon hybrid fabric. All composites are made with a bio-based epoxy derived from wood processing waste. Material data results have been used as input for a FEM model constructed, to dimension a prototype small-scale wind turbine blade. Sets of blades with the different types of fabrics are manufactured while accounting for materials consumption. Consumption data is used to present a benchmarking scenario, demonstrating the feasibility of using bio-based materials for load-carrying structures in wind turbine blades. It is estimated in this study that the non-renewable energy consumption for the conventional composite is around 106,3 [MJ] compared to 5,1 [MJ] for the bio-based one.