Hydrogen‐dependent carbon–cost boundaries in catalytic hydropyrolysis of cellulose‐rich textile waste to aromatics

Abstract Over 90 million tonnes of textile waste are generated annually, yet its blended composition and chemical finishes limit conventional recycling. Here, cellulose‐rich textile waste was converted into aromatic hydrocarbons by ZSM‐5‐catalyzed hydropyrolysis, which promoted deoxygenation and aromatization of textile‐derived vapors. Across four real textile wastes, the process delivered aromatic hydrocarbon yields of 41.0%–56.0% with selectivity above 95%. A coupled LCA and TEA, built on an Aspen Plus process model, gave a cradle‐to‐gate GWP of 0.73 kg CO 2 ‐eq kg −1 aromatics with gray hydrogen (37% lower than fossil‐based) and 0.59 kg CO 2 ‐eq kg −1 with green hydrogen. The gray‐hydrogen route gave an MSP of US$0.68 kg −1 , competitive with commercial mixed aromatics. These results show that hydrogen provenance governs the carbon footprint, whereas hydrogen price governs production cost, identifying low‐cost low‐carbon hydrogen as the decisive lever for scalable textile‐waste‐to‐aromatics conversion.