World’s First Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polyurethane Wind Blades

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/cwru-rba083011.php

Public release date: 30-Aug-2011

Contact: Kevin Mayhood
[email protected]
216-368-4442
http://www.case.edu/">Case Western Reserve University

Researchers build a tougher, lighter wind turbine blade

Polyurethane reinforced with carbon nanotubes outperforms currently used materials

Efforts to build larger wind turbines able to capture more energy from the air are stymied by the weight of blades. A Case Western Reserve University researcher has built a prototype blade that is substantially lighter and eight times tougher and more durable than currently used blade materials.

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On his own, Loos went to the lab on weekends and built the world's first polyurethane blade reinforced with carbon nanotubes. He wanted to be sure the composite that was scoring best on preliminary tests could be molded into the right shape and maintain properties.

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The heavier the blades, the more wind is needed to turn the rotor. That means less energy is captured. And the more the blades flex in the wind, the more they lose the optimal shape for catching moving air, so, even less energy is captured.

Lighter, stiffer blades enable maximum energy and production.

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http://polymers.case.edu/stories/World%27s%20First%20PU%20CNT%20Blades.html

World’s First Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polyurethane Wind Blades

Marcio R. Loos, Cristimari R. O. Loos, Donald L. Feke, Ica Manas-Zloczower

Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106

Usama Younes, Serkan Unal

Bayer MaterialScience Pittsburgh, Pa 15205-9741

Peter Emrich, Frank Bradish, Richard Sesco

Molded Fiber Glass Company Ashtabula, OH 44005-0675



Since its early development in the 1980s, the global market for wind energy has expanded exponentially. In the period between 1990-2007 the world’s total wind electricity capacity has grown 50 times and is predicted to increase over the 2008 level by ten-fold by 2030, and twenty-fold by 2050, <1>. In order to achieve the expansion expected in this area, there is a need for the development of stronger and lighter materials which will enable manufacturing of blades for larger rotors. The larger the area through which the turbine can extract the wind energy, the more power that can be captured (See Figure 1). Advanced materials with higher strength to mass ratios could enable larger area rotors to be cost-effective. Carbon nanotube based composites could enable larger rotor blades.


Figure 1. Growth in size of the rotor diameter of wind turbines since 1980. Adapted from <1>.

The results obtained so far in the project Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Polyurethane Composites for Wind Turbine Blades (DE-EE0001361), demonstrate that polyurethane (PU) resins outperform the currently used resins for wind blades application. Encouraged by these results, we have decided to manufacture small scale carbon nanotube reinforced PU wind blades. Specifically, CNT reinforced PU blades 29” long have been prepared with six glass fiber mats using the vacuum bag technique. In a typical experiment, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were added to polyol and dispersed by using simultaneous sonication (Sonics CP750, 165W) and magnetic stirring during 30 min. The concentration of CNTs and dispersing agent (B60H) has been fixed at 0.05 wt% in relation to polyol. The isocyanate was added to the polyol and the system was used to wet the six layers of biax glass fabric. The steps followed during the manufacturing of the wind blades are presented in Figures 1-3 whereas the CNT reinforced PU blade obtained by vacuum bag is shown in Figure 4.

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(Follow the link for images of the prototype blades.)

[kristopher]

1. Does failure to bring this improvement to market...

...doom the wind industry? Or is it a marginal improvement that marginally enhances the productivity of the wind industry?

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Probably consider it marginal

but a large/significant margin. Coupled with direct drive, wind power looks poised to kick some serious ass in the next decade.