BioBlade - Investigation of natural fiber reinforced composite for use in wind turbine blades

Purpose and goal

The aim of this project was to investigate to what extent natural fibres, in this case hemp bast fibres, could be used to create a sustainable, lightweight and bio-based composite for use in wind turbine blades. More specifically, this project was interested to see if hemp fibers could be used as an alternative to glass fibers and also as a compliment to existing carbon fiber laminates in wind turbine applications. Early indications show that achieving good fiber-matrix adhesion is absolutely necessary to create high performing composite parts.

Expected results and effects

At this point, the project did not complete its overall objective of manufacturing a 10m prototype wind turbine blade, so therefore it is difficult to assess and compare the final results and effects. It appears that additional research into fiber-matrix bonding and the chemical sizing of natural fibers, especially hemp fibers, is needed. This is unfortunately outside the scope of this small project. Hopefully, this project can help to promote the use natural fibers, especially hemp, in high performance composite applications, such as wind turbine blades.

Planned approach and implementation

At this point in time, it is difficult to fully assess the design and implementation of the project as its full aims and objectives have not been realized. As the original timeline was 6 months, it is possible to say that we underestimated the time that initial testing and prototyping would take. In hindsight, it would have been better to limit the project to a smaller component or focus on a lab scale testing of various composite laminates that could then be virtually modeled in a larger application such as a wind turbine blade.