Low-temperature catalytic chemical recycling of WTB-GFRP waste for glass fiber recovery and reuse

The growing disposal of wind turbine blades composed of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) poses a major recycling challenge. In this study, we present a low-temperature catalytic chemical recycling method on GFRP blade waste for glass fiber recovery and evaluation of the mechanical performance of mortar reinforced with recovered glass fibers (rGF). The GFRP was degraded using Mn(acac)₃ in dimethyl sulfoxide at 110 °C, achieving 92.69% epoxy removal efficiency. A significant flexural strength up to 66.04% was achieved at 1% rGF, whereas virgin glass fiber (vGF) showed 29.1% improvement. Based on these results and the observed SEM analysis, a conceptual mechanistic framework and theoretical formula are proposed. The findings show that this catalytic process can recover glass fibers with high epoxy removal efficiency, and even substantial epoxy residue can be used to improve the mechanical performance of mortar composites, supporting and offering a sustainable pathway for valorizing blade waste across multiple material systems.