Independent engineering advice on composite end-of-life, from the decommissioning provision to the recycling plant
RCA Engineering helps wind operators, investors, lenders, recyclers and public funders decide what should happen to glass, carbon and aramid composites at the end of their service life, and whether the plants built to receive them will perform as their business plans assume. We build no plants, hold no technology licences and have no commercial ties to equipment vendors or recyclers, so our conclusions are shaped only by the evidence.
Registered Industrial Technical Engineer (Mechanical), no. 27823
More than 25 years of international EPC and EPCM project delivery
Court-appointed expert in composite materials
Member of EuCIA's European Circular Composites Alliance
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Composite end-of-life has become a financial decision that needs an engineering answer
Wind turbine blades, boat hulls and aerospace scrap now carry a cost that appears in decommissioning provisions, repowering business cases and the financing of new recycling plants. The routes available to receive this material differ widely in maturity, cost per tonne, product quality and counterparty risk, and the answer often comes from a party that operates one of those routes. Owners, lenders and funders need an assessment that starts from the laminate actually in front of them and compares every credible route on the same basis.
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Why clients bring this question to an independent specialist
Our independence is structural. RCA builds no plants, licenses no processes and holds no agreements with technology vendors, recyclers or disposal sites, so the only thing we gain from a recommendation is its accuracy. This reflects the conflict-of-interest tests that lenders and development banks apply when they appoint technical advisers.
We know the material and the project. Our founder has built carbon and aramid prepreg structures for the America's Cup, designed aerospace structures by finite-element analysis and acted as a court-appointed expert in composite materials, and he has spent more than 25 years delivering process plants under international EPC and EPCM contracts. That combination lets us judge what spar caps, balsa and foam cores, honeycomb, resins and coatings will do inside a shredder, a reactor or a kiln, and what that means for a financial model.
The engineer you brief is the engineer who signs. Every engagement is scoped in writing, delivered to an agreed date and signed by a registered engineer who can defend the conclusions in front of an investment committee.
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Three areas of independent advice
Composite end-of-life and decommissioning advisory
We characterise the composite stream, compare mechanical, thermal, chemical and cement co-processing routes, and test decommissioning provisions and contracting strategies for wind, marine and aerospace assets.
Recycling plant technical due diligence
We review composite recycling projects for investors, lenders and grant bodies, covering feedstock contracts, mass and energy balance, technology maturity, product specification and offtake, capital and operating costs, and the EPC contract.
Process plant due diligence for gasification, pyrolysis and waste-to-energy
We apply the same independent review to thermal conversion and waste-to-energy projects, drawing on decades of design, contracting and commissioning experience in these plants.
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Two fixed-scope reviews to start with
Decommissioning Provision Rapid Review
An independent, defensible view of the end-of-life liability of a wind portfolio, covering blade materials, credible routes, costs and contracting risks. Delivered in ten working days under a non-disclosure agreement.
Recycling Plant Bankability Review
An independent test of a composite recycling facility before financial close or grant justification, covering the feedstock, the process, the product, the contracts and the numbers that lenders and funders will examine.
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Credentials you can verify
Jaime Recasens Grau is an Industrial Technical Engineer (Mechanical) registered with the Col·legi d'Enginyers Graduats i Enginyers Tècnics Industrials del Garraf i l'Alt Penedès (no. 27823), and holds an MBA from La Salle Barcelona. He received a JEC Award during his engineering studies at UPC for work on composites applied to construction, and he has served as a court-appointed expert in composite materials. RCA Engineering is a member of EuCIA's European Circular Composites Alliance.
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How an engagement works
You start with a confidential briefing by email or through the contact form, and we reply within two working days. We are happy to sign your non-disclosure agreement before you share any project documents. A thirty-minute scoping call, free of charge, establishes the question, the material, the stage of the project and the deadline. We then send a written scope with the deliverables, the timetable and the fee, and the work is delivered and signed by the engineer you spoke to on the first call.
Tell us about the decision in front of you
Describe the material, the asset or plant and the decision you need to make, and we will tell you within two working days whether and how we can help.
Or write directly to info@rcaengineering.es