Sustainable syngas production from thermochemical processing of cellulosic textile waste in the presence of CO2

Abstract

In response to ever-expanding textile industry, substantial generation in clothing waste has posed the environmental risks caused by conventional treatments. As an alternative approach, this study aims to establish pyrolytic valorisation of cellulosic textile waste. To impart sustainability to the pyrolysis system, a novel approach was proposed by employing carbon dioxide (CO2), key greenhouse gas, as reactive feedstock. This study mainly investigated mechanical function of carbon dioxide on all pyrogenic products derived from cellulosic textile waste. Remarkably, CO2 interacted with volatile pyrogenic products and transformed them into carbon monoxide (CO). CO2 led to 0.82 times reduction of carbohydrate compounds and 1.18 times increase of CO, in reference to the results from N2. To further enhance the identified reactivity of CO2, the established experimental setup was modified by installing an additional furnace (isothermally heated at 600 °C) and a nickel catalyst (5 wt% Ni/Al2O3). Consequently, CO production from the proposed catalytic pyrolysis increased by 2.01 times. The findings demonstrate that introducing CO2 to the pyrolysis system contributed to the improvement of carbon utilisation efficiency in the form of CO. Therefore, this study offers a framework highlighting technical reliability of carbon dioxide-assisted pyrolysis system for promoting environmental sustainability and resource recovery.