Assessing the viability of energetic valorization of textile waste through fluidized bed catalytic combustion with carbon capture

Abstract

The textile industry is one of the most harmful to the environment due to the large amount of waste it generates, which usually ends up in landfills or is incinerated, as happened in 2015, when 73% of the textiles produced worldwide were disposed of in these ways. This study evaluates the feasibility of energetically valorizing textile waste through catalytic combustion with zeolite in fluidized bed and carbon capture, using Aspen Plus® software. The simulation shows that textile waste can be combusted, ultimately reducing NO_x to N₂ and capturing about 40% of CO₂. Furthermore, catalytic combustion has an overall efficiency of 40%, and oxy-combustion has an efficiency of only 18%, attributable to the energy consumption of the N₂ air separation stage. This study is a starting point for the energetic valorization of textile waste in an environmentally responsible manner.