Rejuvenation of Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades

Project Description:

This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The successful applicant will undertake six-month of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research at the University of Sheffield.

While the wind energy industry is a green success story in the field of renewable energy, end-of-life solutions, especially for composite blades with a limited lifespan, remain a challenge. Siemens Gamesa and Aditya Birla have successfully developed full scale manufacturing of recyclable wind turbine blades, in a project called RecyclableBlade. Using a mild solvent (acetic acid), they have proven the economic viability of introducing recyclability in the wind energy value chain, while reducing CO2 emissions by 28%.   

While the viability of full-scale wind turbine blades made with Recyclamine® has been demonstrated, the key innovation of this project lies in exploring a fundamentally different application of this material system: the use of localised heating to rejuvenate and extend the lifespan of recyclable blades already in service. The core knowledge gap relates to how Recyclamine®-based systems respond to controlled, spatially confined thermal stimuli. Recyclamine® is known for its cleavable bonds that enable chemical recycling, but some of its variants also demonstrate topological rearrangement above certain threshold temperatures, akin to thermoplastics. This vitrimeric behaviour has only recently been identified and remains underexplored in the context of structural composites like wind blades.  

The potential of these new findings will be investigated at small scale with different Recyclamine® variants at coupon level first, followed by manufacturing and fatigue testing of small-scale wind turbine blades or demonstrator segments before and after rejuvenation. The coupling of recycling/re-use solutions with the potential of extending the blade lifespan, with clear pathway to impact at scale will prove to be very beneficial to the industry.

Training and development

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull for the new student intake, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

You will receive training in composite manufacturing as well as mechanical and physical testing equipment inductions.

Entry requirements

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in Chemistry or Engineering, we would like to hear from you. A material, mechanical or chemistry engineering background is essential. Mechanical testing and polymer chemistry experience is desired.

If your first language is not English, or you require Tier 4 student visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill.

If you have any queries about this project, please contact Dr Colin Robert: c.robert@sheffield.ac.uk 

You may also address queries about the CDT to auracdt@hull.ac.uk.

Watch our short video to hear from Aura CDT students, academics and industry partners:

Funding

The Offshore Wind CDT is funded by the EPSRC, allowing us to provide scholarships that cover fees plus a stipend set at the UKRI nationally agreed rates. These are currently £20,780 per annum at 2025/26 rates and will increase in line with the EPSRC guidelines for the subsequent years (subject to progress).

Eligibility

Research Council funding for postgraduate research has residence requirements. Our CDT scholarships are available to Home (UK) Students. To be considered a Home student, and therefore eligible for a full award, a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the scholarship (with some further constraint regarding residence for education). For full eligibility information, please refer to the EPSRC website.

We also allocate a number of scholarships for International Students per cohort.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The CDT is committed to generating a diverse and inclusive training programme and is looking to attract applicants from all backgrounds. We offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for home fee status candidates who identify as Black or Black mixed or Asian or Asian mixed if they meet the programme entry requirements. This positive action is to support recruitment of these under-represented ethnic groups to our programme and is an opt in process.

Find out more

How to apply

Applications for this project will open in Autumn 2025 for September 2026 entry.

Interviews will be held online with an interview panel comprising of project supervisory team members from the host university where the project is based.  Where the project involves external supervisors from university partners or industry sponsors then representatives from these partners may form part of the interview panel and your supplementary application form will be shared with them (with the guaranteed interview scheme section removed).

If you have any queries about this project, please contact Dr Colin Robert: c.robert@sheffield.ac.uk 

You may also address queries about the CDT to auracdt@hull.ac.uk.

References & Further Reading 

https://www.sandia.gov/app/uploads/sites/273/2022/11/SGRE_RecyclableBlade_Sandia2022_LHv1.pdf

https://www.recyclamine.com/

https://www.abg-am.com/portfolio/chemistry/recyclamine-technology/F008?tab=1 

https://www.siemensgamesa.com/global/en/home/explore/journal/recyclable-blade.html 

 https://interregtiger.com/paimpol-brehat-tidal-test-site-improving-the-quality-of-tidal-turbine-blades/