Thermochemical valorisation of real post-consumer mixed textile waste

• Thermochemical conversion of both model and real textile waste streams. • Investigated the effect of temperature and steam on product distribution. • Syngas and benzene were the main products retrieved from mixed textile waste. • Cotton content increased syngas yields relative to PET-rich mixtures. Thermochemical conversion for the valorisation of mixed post-consumer textile waste was experimentally investigated. Four model mixtures were investigated, mainly consisting of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with the addition of nylon (polyamide (PA) 6) and elastane (polyurethane (PUR)), to represent the synthetic fraction of textiles, and one real post-consumer textile waste stream. Experiments were performed in a bubbling fluidized bed for different temperatures (700–850 °C) and steam-to-carbon ratios (0 & 1). Due to the thermal decomposition of PET, the main products were CO 2 (15 % carbon yield) and benzene (26 % carbon yield) for the model mixtures. With the addition of PA6 and PUR, the yields decreased in favour of higher hydrocarbon yields. For the real textile waste (>50 wt% cotton), the product distribution shifted towards higher product gas yields, with the gas mainly consisting of syngas (H 2 and CO). As the reaction temperature increased the benzene, toluene and light olefin yields for the real textile waste increased (up to 802 °C). At higher temperatures syngas became the predominant product, with H 2 yields increasing significantly. The effect of steam on the product distribution was less significant compared to the reaction temperatures, with steam leading to higher H 2 and CO 2 yields. The results demonstrated the feasibility of textile waste valorisation via thermochemical conversion to retrieve high-value chemicals (benzene and toluene) and syngas with varying compositions.