Posted on 08/23/2022 5:00:36 PM PDT by grundle
Researchers design composite resin for blades that can be broken down to make new products including sweets
The next generation of wind turbine blades could be recycled into gummy bears at the end of their service, scientists have said.
Researchers at Michigan State University have made a composite resin for the blades by combining glass fibres with a plant-derived polymer and a synthetic one. Once the blades have reached the end of their lifespan the materials can be broken down and recycled to make new products including turbine blades – and chewy sweets.
Wind power is one of the dominant forms of renewable energy. However, turbine blades, usually made of fibreglass, can be as long as half a football field and cause problems with disposal, with many discarded in landfills when they reach the end of their use cycle.
To combat the waste, researchers designed a new form of resin. Digesting the resin in an alkaline solution produced potassium lactate, which can be purified and made into sweets and sports drinks.
“We recovered food-grade potassium lactate and used it to make gummy bear candies, which I ate,” said John Dorgan, one of the authors of the paper.
The alkaline digestion also released poly(methyl methacrylate), or PMMA, a common acrylic material used in windows and car taillights.
On eating gummy bears that are derived from a wind turbine, Dorgan says “a carbon atom derived from a plant, like corn or grass, is no different from a carbon atom that came from a fossil fuel. It’s all part of the global carbon cycle, and we’ve shown that we can go from biomass in the field to durable plastic materials and back to foodstuffs.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
What’s the amount of energy requiredto do this wonderful conversion? Some people can’t afford the regular gummi bears right now.
What a world we live in. Gummy bears made from recycled wind turbine blades. Major food protein source from crickets instead of cattle, chicken or hogs. Electricity magically made from unicorn farts.
(Jonathan Swift reference)
I’d rather recycle “scientists” into tar pits.
Sure, fiberglass reinforced Gummy Bears! Yyyyyuuuummmmyyy. You go first big guy. That idea is working so well they’re burying enough fiberglass to make a couple trillion gummies in an old coal mine in Wyoming. But the good news is if they pile about 100 feet of dirt on them in 60 million years they’ll be oil again.
Perhaps we can turn excrement into lobster, beef, coffee, synthahol, gagh or cake. (Star Trek reference)
Hey kids!!!!
Eat some wind turbine blades!!!!
SOYLENT GREEN
Who knew!
what could go wrong?
oy vey
In the game Portal 2, it’s revealed that the blue Repulsion Gel was originally an Aperture Science attempt at a dietetic pudding, which was supposed to be a sweeter, less toxic form of fiberglass insulation.
more and more reasons to grow your own food, raise your own chickens...and if you have the land...hogs and cattle...
Soylent Green New Deal
Can’t he any worse than lead paint chips
Go green. It’s for the children!
Might be good to trademark that!
And I already think Gummi bears are way overrated.
How much electricty does a gummy bear create?
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