Prospective material flow analysis of the end-of-life decommissioning: Case study of a North Sea offshore wind farm

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Célestin Demuytere
  • Ines Vanderveken
  • Gwenny Thomassen
  • María Fernanda Godoy León
  • Laura Vittoria De Luca Peña
  • Chris Blommaert
  • Jochem Vermeir
  • Jo Dewulf

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107283
JournalResources, Conservation and Recycling
Volume200
Number of pages8
ISSN0921-3449
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2024
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023

    Research areas

  • Circular economy, End-of-life, Material flow analysis, Offshore wind energy, Recycling indicators, Waste management

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Responsible Artificial Intelligence Systems
  2. Soil chemical legacies trigger species-specific and context-dependent root responses in later arriving plants
  3. The Relationship of Environmental and Economic Performance at the Firm Level
  4. AN INVESTIGATION OF LENGTH ESTIMATION SKILLS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
  5. Investigation on Flexible Coils Geometries for Inductive Power Transmission Systems
  6. Almost-invariant sets and invariant manifolds
  7. Plant diversity effects on aboveground and belowground N pools in temperate grassland ecosystems
  8. Influence of grid-connected solar inverters and mains monitoring systems on the spectral grid impedance
  9. Residual stresses of the as-cast Mg-xCa alloys with hot sprues by neutron diffraction
  10. Microstructural evolution of Mg–14Gd–0.4Zr alloy during compressive creep
  11. The Assessment of Substitution Through Event Studies-An Application to Supply-Side Substitution in Berlin's Rental Market*
  12. Tundra Trait Team
  13. Local perceptions as a guide for the sustainable management of natural resources
  14. The social-cognitive basis of infants’ reference to absent entities
  15. Predicting Therapy Success and Costs for Personalized Treatment Recommendations Using Baseline Characteristics
  16. Not Only the Miserable Receive Help
  17. Cost Minimization in a Firm's Power Station
  18. The perceiver’s social role and a risk’s causal structure as determinants of environmental risk evaluation
  19. Pennycress-corn double-cropping increases ground beetle diversity
  20. Involving Corporate Functions
  21. Selection harvest in temperate deciduous forests: impact on herb layer richness and composition
  22. An IAD framework analysis of minigrid institutions for sustainable rural electrification in East Africa
  23. Opportunities and Drawbacks of Mobile Flood Protection Systems
  24. Spielt es nur eine Rolle "was" gepromptet wird oder auch "wann" gepromptet wird.
  25. Armed to Kill
  26. Working group on dry grasslands in the nordic and baltic region - Outline of the project and first results for the class Festuco-Brometea