Environmental and Economic Analysis of Repurposed Wind Turbine Blades for Recreational Trail Bridges
風力タービンブレードを再利用したトレイル橋の環境・経済分析 (AI 翻訳)
A. G. Silverman, Gabriel Ackall, G. Johansen, T. Gentry, L. C. Bank
🤖 gxceed AI 要約
日本語
本研究は、廃棄された風力タービンブレードをトレイル橋に再利用した場合の環境影響（CO2換算排出量）と経済性（USD）を、ライフサイクル分析（LCA）と技術経済分析（TEA）を用いて評価した。米国DOEのTECHTESTソフトウェアで従来橋（鋼、FRP、グレーチング）と比較し、ブレード橋が低コストかつ低CO2排出であることを示した。追加指標として技術成熟度や市場可能性も評価し、好結果を得た。
English
This paper presents a life cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) of repurposing retired wind turbine blades into recreational trail bridges. Using the US DOE's TECHTEST platform, it compares a BladeBridge against three conventional bridges (steel truss, FRP pultruded, glulam). Results show BladeBridge is significantly cheaper and has lower global warming potential. Additional metrics (TRL, market potential) are positive.
Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.
📝 gxceed 編集解説 — Why this matters
日本のGX文脈において
日本では風力発電の導入拡大に伴い、廃棄ブレードの処理が課題となっている。本論文はブレードの土木資材としての再利用（橋梁）の有効性を示し、日本の循環型社会形成やGX（グリーントランスフォーメーション）政策に示唆を与える。
In the global GX context
This paper contributes to the circular economy for wind turbine blades, a growing waste stream from renewable energy. It provides a rigorous LCA/TEA methodology that can be applied globally to other blade repurposing projects, supporting net-zero and waste reduction goals.
👥 読者別の含意
🔬研究者:Provides a replicable LCA/TEA framework for evaluating blade repurposing; useful for circular economy and decarbonization research.
🏢実務担当者:Sustainability and infrastructure teams can use the findings to explore cost-effective, low-carbon bridge alternatives using retired blades.
🏛政策担当者:Supports policies promoting wind blade recycling and circular economy; offers evidence of economic and environmental benefits.
📄 Abstract（原文）
A two-parameter environmental (measured in CO2eq—CO2 is used in this paper to represent the carbon dioxide molecule as opposed to the chemical formula CO2 as is common practice in LCA studies; CO2eq is an abbreviation for CO2 equivalent and may be written as CO2e in the literature) and economic (measured in USD) analysis using life cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) of repurposed wind turbine blades for structural use in recreational trail bridges (e.g., on hiking trails and golf courses) is described in this paper. The US Department of Energy’s TECHTEST TEA/LCA software (v1.0) platform was used to compare three commercially available trail bridges (a steel truss bridge, an FRP pultruded truss bridge, and a glulam stringer bridge) with a bridge made from retired wind turbine blades (known as a BladeBridge). All bridges had a 50 ft (15.24 m) long by 6 ft (1.83 m) wide deck and were designed for a 90 psf (4.3 kN/m2) live load. The LCA functional unit was the assembled bridge, which was made ready to be shipped from the fabricator. Cradle-to-gate (A1–A3, i.e., raw material extraction, transportation, and manufacturing) system boundaries were used. For the BladeBridge, no embodied carbon was attributed to the blade itself (cut-off system allocation). For the TEA, a USD 660/tonne credit was attributed to the blade. The raw materials for each bridge were determined from detailed construction documents. Manufacturing and transportation energy were determined based on the equipment used for fabrication and geographical location. Direct labor for fabrication was calculated based on a weighted average of salaries taken from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results indicate that raw materials had the biggest effect on embodied CO2eq and that labor had the largest impact on cost for all bridges. The results indicate that the BladeBridge is significantly less expensive to produce and releases less CO2eq into the environment (less Global Warming Potential (GWP)) than the three commercially available bridges. Additional TEA metrics for the BladeBridge, including Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and future market potential, were also evaluated and found to be positive for the BladeBridge technology.
🔗 Provenance — このレコードを発見したソース
- semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.3390/su18031439first seen 2026-06-29 07:39:32
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