TY - JOUR

T1 - Prospective material flow analysis of the end-of-life decommissioning

T2 - Case study of a North Sea offshore wind farm

AU - Demuytere, Célestin

AU - Vanderveken, Ines

AU - Thomassen, Gwenny

AU - Godoy León, María Fernanda

AU - De Luca Peña, Laura Vittoria

AU - Blommaert, Chris

AU - Vermeir, Jochem

AU - Dewulf, Jo

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by the consortium partners of the Flemish CTO ICON project , who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research, contributing both on the specific case as well as internal knowledge. This paper was performed in concordance with the CTO consortium partners, although they may not agree with all of the interpretations/conclusions of this paper. The authors acknowledge the financial support received from the Flemish administration via the CE Center (Policy Research Centre Circular Economy) . This publication contains the opinions of the authors, not that of the Flemish administration. The Flemish administration will not carry any liability with respect to the use that can be made of the produced data or conclusions. Publisher Copyright: © 2023

PY - 2024/1/1

Y1 - 2024/1/1

N2 - Early offshore wind farms approach their decommissioning phase, yet a lack of precedents, potential legal bottlenecks, inadequate treatments and a lack of applicable circularity indicators, leave the sector unprepared, encompassing a risk of valuable materials loss. This paper presents a first-of-its-kind circularity analysis of the prospective decommissioning scenario of a North Sea wind farm, introducing and applying new circularity indicators. From the site-specific primary data, a bill of materials and material flow analysis was established, differentiating between secondary applications and end-of-life destinations. The main share (80 %) of the installed mass originated from scour protection, acting as hotspot to the 84 % of materials remaining in situ. The collected fraction recycling rate approaches 90 %. However, the substantial discrepancies between components and materials implicate a need for component or material-specific targets to avoid valuable material loss. Introducing such collection or recycling targets could encourage more circular decommissioning practices along the value chain.

AB - Early offshore wind farms approach their decommissioning phase, yet a lack of precedents, potential legal bottlenecks, inadequate treatments and a lack of applicable circularity indicators, leave the sector unprepared, encompassing a risk of valuable materials loss. This paper presents a first-of-its-kind circularity analysis of the prospective decommissioning scenario of a North Sea wind farm, introducing and applying new circularity indicators. From the site-specific primary data, a bill of materials and material flow analysis was established, differentiating between secondary applications and end-of-life destinations. The main share (80 %) of the installed mass originated from scour protection, acting as hotspot to the 84 % of materials remaining in situ. The collected fraction recycling rate approaches 90 %. However, the substantial discrepancies between components and materials implicate a need for component or material-specific targets to avoid valuable material loss. Introducing such collection or recycling targets could encourage more circular decommissioning practices along the value chain.

KW - Circular economy

KW - End-of-life

KW - Material flow analysis

KW - Offshore wind energy

KW - Recycling indicators

KW - Waste management

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85177222043&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2023.107283

DO - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2023.107283

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85177222043

VL - 200

JO - Resources, Conservation and Recycling

JF - Resources, Conservation and Recycling

SN - 0921-3449

M1 - 107283

ER -