Sustainable energy generation from textile biowaste and its challenges: A comprehensive review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.112051Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A comprehensive review on bioenergy generation from biowaste was reported for the first time.

  • Potential biowaste generation in different textile processing and their scope of bioenergy production were focused.

  • Different technologies and principles of bio-alcohol, biogas, biodiesel, biohydrogen and bioelectricity were discussed.

  • A list of limitations and future directions were presented.

Abstract

The inevitable depletion of fossil fuels has retained a growing concern among the world leaders about the future energy security. The researchers and energy experts have unequivocally agreed that bioenergy could be a sustainable solution to the impending energy crisis. Textile and apparel are the largest and oldest industry in human society. The development of textile market depends on the growth of population, economic development and rapid change of fashion. Consequently, huge amount of biowaste in the form of solid and effluent are generated from textile industries which could be potential to generate bioenergy. Although various types of feedstocks are practically being used in recent years, the generation of bioenergy from textile biowaste is comparatively unexplored area of research. This review mainly focuses the generation of bioenergy from textile biowaste which is released from different stages of textile processing as well as post-consumer garments waste. The discussion on the available treatment technologies with their merits, demerits, and production performance including key factors are highlighted. The potential of the treatment technologies dealing with the bioenergy conversion from textile biowaste are also appended.

Introduction

The use of textiles encompasses industries ranging from healthcare to high-tech fashion and beyond. The basic material for textiles is the fiber that can be broadly classified as natural and man-made category and their applications belong to the following three wide areas namely apparel, home furnishings and technical or industrial. The amount of global fiber production is more than 111 million metric tons per year and it would reach 146 million metric tons by 2030 [1]. Likewise, the global annual textile consumption is nearly 13 kg/person [2]. The Fig. 1 depicts the average clothing utilization in different parts of the world. In fact, the industrialized countries consume more textiles and eventually produce higher proportions of waste.

Generally, the textile industry is water and energy intensive that consumes colossal amount of natural resources responsible for water pollution scarcity of natural resources and emission of greenhouse gases leading to global warming [3,4]. The energy consumption of cotton and polyester garments processing industry is 6.6648 × 104 and 9.1508 × 104 kWh, respectively along with, additional 30–40% energy load due to packaging, transportation and sales of these garments [5,6].

This energy is produced by burning fossil fuels dominating the world energy market worthy of US$ 1.85 trillion in 2019 [8]. The consumption of fossil fuel has increased rapidly for the generation of power and energy in different industries including textile processing [9]. Currently, about 1000 barrels of fossil fuels are being burned in every second in the world [10]. The reckless use of fossil fuels is a crucial factor that results in global warming due to release of greenhouse gases. Due to the rise in world temperature more than 2 °C, millions of people would lose their lives globally and nearly one million species would be extinct completely from the earth [11]. In addition, owing to the burgeoning population growth worldwide and rapid industrialization, the total energy demand of the world is increasing exponentially leading to whopping consumption of the fossil fuels [12]. As per the report of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world energy consumption will rise nearly 50% from 2018 to 2050 [7]. A probable forecasting regarding the future energy demand is presented in Fig. 2. If the statistics becomes factual and the current trend of energy consumptions continues, it is believed that the fossil fuels (oil and gas) of the world will be exhausted by 2042 causing an ultimate energy scarcity [13,14]. Moreover, due to limited resource and active contribution to environmental pollution, the fossil fuels are considered as an unsustainable source of energy generation [15]. Hence, it is very urgent to search for an alternative large-scale sustainable energy source to overcome the future energy crisis of the world.

Against this backdrop of alarming situation, researchers all over the world are trying to find out the sustainable source of bioenergy that would play a pivotal role in the future challenge to energy security [16]. Understanding the ultimate risk of fossil fuels, many countries in the world has initiated the production of renewable bioenergy from biomass since 1970s [16]. Bioenergy can be of various forms: biogas, biodiesel, bioethanol, bio-hydrogen and bioelectricity [17,18]. Biomass is mainly categorized as first generation (sugarcane, corn, wheat, starch, vegetables oils and animal fats etc.), second generation (non-edible lignocellulosic biomass) and third generation (microalgae and other microbes) bioresource for biofuel production [[15], [16], [17], [18], [19]]. The production of biofuels from the first-generation biomass has been criticized for various reasons: (i) risk of scarcity of food and negative impact on biodiversity (ii) unpopular and less competitive with the existing fuels and (iii) limited GHG reduction [20]. Unlike the first-generation biofuel technology, there is no need for land and water in case of second and third generation biofuel production. The residues of agriculture, forestry, sewage sludge, industrial and municipal wastes are considered as the potential source of biofuel production in this regard [21,22]. Moreover, the emissions of GHG from third generation biofuel are much lower than those of first-generation biofuel generating materials.

Textile and fashion industries generate a huge amount of bio-waste in several forms having heterogeneous conditions. Biowaste from textile industries is mainly comprised of cellulose, hemicelluloses, protein, starch which can be used as low-cost raw materials for the biotechnological manufacturing of bioenergy [23,24]. The waste is generated from natural fiber cultivation and processing, yarn spinning, fabric and garments processing and post-consumer operations. It is assumed that in 2030, overall textile waste is going to reach 148 million tons out of them more than 35% will be cellulose based waste [25]. Apart from this, a huge amount of solid and liquid textile wastes is also produced during textile manufacturing process [[26], [27], [28]]. Moreover, due to fast changing fashion trend, the global clothing demand is being increased which eventually flourishes the generation of post-consumer textile waste. Therefore, textile wastes are considered as promising and sustainable resource for bioenergy production. In recent years, fast improvement has been observed in various waste related to bioenergy generation. Numerous studies and reviews on bioenergy are available with a divergent flavor or importance. But the production of bioenergy from textile waste has not yet been studied extensively. To the best of our knowledge, there is no review on bioenergy production from waste of textile and fashion industries. The aim of this review is to summarize the key aspects of bioenergy production from textile biowaste.

Focus will be first directed towards fundamental of textile operations and subsequent waste generation with their potentiality for bioenergy production. The bioenergy generation from textile biowaste has been critically examined in this review with their existing shortcomings. In addition, a vivid speculation on the prospect of renewable and sustainable power and energy generation from textile wastes has also been highlighted in this review.

Section snippets

Fundamental textile operations and waste generation

The textile industries involve a diverse range of operations for the processing of natural and manmade fiber in fragmented group of establishments that produce fibers, yarns and fabrics for further finishing to produce clothing, home furnishings and industrial textiles. The prime raw material of textile industry is the fiber that is mainly categorized into cellulose fiber, protein fiber and synthetic fiber. Cellulosic fibers are extracted from plant materials such as cotton, flax, jute, hemp,

3. Composition of textile biowaste

The textile bio waste is chiefly categorized as solid waste and effluent [42]. The solid waste can be further sub divided into pre-consumer or in processing waste and post-consumer waste mentioned earlier. The pre-consumer textile solid waste contains biodegradable components such as cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin originated from ginning process of cotton fibers. The second category processing textile solid wastes includes fibers and fiber lint and yarns from spinning process and finally yarn

Environmental impact of textile waste

The rapid growth of textile and fashion industries are making pollution footprint in each step of textile lifecycle [50,51]. Likewise, household attire consumption has a significant impact on pollution footprint. For example, the annual water consumption of an average sized family is equivalent to the water quantity of 1000 bath tubs and the release of CO2 equals to that much release of a car running about 9500 km [[52], [53], [54]]. Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) has

Bioenergy generation from textile biowaste

Textile solid wastes are mostly fibrous materials that include cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin collectively being considered as biowaste. The in process solid waste includes cotton seed, cotton gin trash, spinning and weaving waste, post-consumer cotton textiles and textile effluent [60]. This type of waste has a higher content of organic compounds which make it a perfect candidate for conversion into bioenergy. A number of conversion methods are available for getting bioenergy from

Outlooks

The essence of textiles in civilized society is eternal encompassing from cradle to death. This manufacturing unit would exist as long as human life survive in the world. Consequently, textile waste generation would continue as life goes on. In modern times, the waste generation in textile operation is ceaselessly increasing with alarming whopping rate causing serious disturbance in everyday life. The generation of bioenergy from textile waste facilitates the human society in two fold way:

Key challenges and future recommendations

The advantage of bioenergy over petrofuel is well documented. In 2018, global biofuels production was 154 billion liters, which will increase by 25% in 2024 as per IEA report of 2020 [151]. The near future, China, the USA and Brazil will be the biggest consumers of bioenergy. Several countries around the world have already started bioenergy project commercially and on industrial scale. The European countries like Germany, France, UK, Poland and Italy are collectively producing around 10 Mtoe y−1

Conclusions

Since the global energy crisis is looming large with ever increasing depletion of fossil fuels, the search for alternative bio-based energy generation has grabbed the immense attention of the researchers. The world leaders are highly concerned about global warming and thus reliance on fossil fuels needs to be reduced by renewables like bioenergy. The waste biomass is a potential source for bioenergy generation. Therefore, this review has compiled several recent attempts for sustainable

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgment

The authors like to give sincere thanks to Ex-Supernumerary Professor Dr. Nurul Islam, Department of Chemistry, DUET, Bangladesh. The authors were also grateful to the Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology, (DUET), Gazipur. This research work was fully funded by the DUET (DUET-CASR/4008-2019). The author also wishes to thanks to the anonymous reviewers and editor for their helpful suggestions and enlightening comments.

References (155)

  • S.H. Teo et al.

    Sustainable toxic dyes removal with advanced materials for clean water production: A comprehensive review

    J Clean Prod

    (2022)
  • H.N. Bhatti et al.

    Biodiesel production from waste tallow

    Fuel

    (2008)
  • A.L. Stephenson et al.

    Improving the sustainability of the production of biodiesel from oilseed rape in the UK

    Process Saf Environ Protect

    (2008)
  • G.B. Hong et al.

    Energy conservation potential in Taiwanese textile industry

    Energy Pol

    (2010)
  • Y. Chisti

    Biodiesel from microalgae

    Biotechnol Adv

    (2007)
  • S.K. Bhatia et al.

    An overview of microdiesel — a sustainable future source of renewable energy

    Renew Sustain Energy Rev

    (2017)
  • M.M. Kabir et al.

    Highly effective agro-waste based functional green adsorbents for toxic chromium(VI) ion removal from wastewater

    J Mol Liquid

    (2022)
  • W. Leal Filho et al.

    A review of the socio-economic advantages of textile recycling

    J Clean Prod

    (2019)
  • N. Haleem et al.

    Synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose from waste of cotton ginning industry

    Carbohydr Polym

    (2014)
  • N.Y. Zheng et al.

    Co-processing textile sludge and lignocellulose biowaste for biofuel production through microwave-assisted wet torrefaction

    J Clean Prod

    (2020)
  • A. Khatri et al.

    A review on developments in dyeing cotton fabrics with reactive dyes for reducing effluent pollution

    J Clean Prod

    (2015)
    M.R. Awual

    Innovative composite material for efficient and highly selective Pb(II) ion capturing from wastewater

    J Mol Liq

    (2019)
    M.T. Hossain et al.

    Functionalized layered double hydroxides composite bio-adsorbent for efficient copper(II) ion encapsulation from wastewater

    J Environ Manag

    (2021)
    M.R. Awual

    Novel conjugated hybrid material for efficient lead(II) capturing from contaminated wastewater

    Mater Sci Eng C

    (2019)
    K. Abbas et al.

    A ligand anchored conjugate adsorbent for effective mercury(II) detection and removal from aqueous media

    Chem Eng J

    (2018)
  • Benkhaya benkhaya et al.

    Classifications, properties and applications of textile dyes: a review

    Appl J Environ Eng Sci

    (2017)
  • FastFacts: textile and product waste

    (2016)
    M.R. Awual

    An efficient composite material for selective lead(II) monitoring and removal from wastewater

    J Environ Chem Eng

    (2019)
    S. Das et al.

    Sustainable approach for wastewater treatment using microbial fuel cells and green energy generation- A comprehensive review

    J Mol Liq

    (2021)
    M.R. Awual

    Efficient phosphate removal from water for controlling eutrophication using novel composite adsorbent

    J Clean Prod

    (2019)
    S. Roy et al.

    Functional novel ligand based palladium(II) separation and recovery from e-waste using solvent-ligand approach

    Colloids Surf, A

    (2022)
  • L. Claudio

    Waste couture: environmental impact of the clothing industry

    Environ Health Perspect

    (2007)
  • M. Nagel

    Exploring digital innovations: mapping 3D printing within the textile and sportswear industry

    (2019)
    M.R. Awual

    Novel ligand functionalized composite material for efficient copper(II) capturing from wastewater sample

    Compos B Eng

    (2019)
    A.M. Swaraz et al.

    Advances in physiochemical and biotechnological approaches for sustainable metal recovery from e-waste: a critical review

    J Clean Prod

    (2021)
    M.R. Awual

    Mesoporous composite material for efficient lead(II) detection and removal from aqueous media

    J Environ Chem Eng

    (2019)
    M.A. Khaleque et al.

    Treatment of copper(II) containing wastewater by a newly developed ligand based facial conjugate materials

    Chem Eng J

    (2016)
  • Valuing our clothes: the cost of UK fashion

    Wrap

    (2017)
    M.R. Awual

    A facile composite material for enhanced cadmium(II) ion capturing from wastewater

    J Environ Chem Eng

    (2019)
    M. Miyazaki et al.

    Encapsulation of cesium from contaminated water with highly selective facial organic-inorganic mesoporous hybrid adsorbent

    Chem Eng J

    (2016)
    M.R. Awual

    New type mesoporous conjugate material for selective optical copper(II) ions monitoring & removal from polluted waters

    Chem Eng J

    (2017)
    H. Shiwaku et al.

    A sensitive ligand embedded nano-conjugate adsorbent for effective cobalt(II) ions capturing from contaminated water

    Chem Eng J

    (2015)
  • Y. Wang

    Fiber and textile waste Utilization

    Waste and Biomass Valorization

    (2010)
  • M. Ranjithkumar et al.

    An effective conversion of cotton waste biomass to ethanol: a critical review on pretreatment processes

    Waste Biomass Valorization

    (2016)
  • S.Y. Lee et al.

    Waste to bioenergy: a review on the recent conversion technologies

    BMC Energy

    (2019)
  • N. Widiarti et al.

    Development of CaO from natural calcite as a heterogeneous base catalyst in the formation of biodiesel: Review

    J Renew Mater

    (2019)
  • A. Jeihanipour et al.

    A novel process for ethanol or biogas production from cellulose in blended-fibers waste textiles

    Waste Manag

    (2010)
  • J. Plácido et al.

    Evaluation of ligninolytic enzymes, ultrasonication and liquid hot water as pretreatments for bioethanol production from cotton gin trash

    Bioresour Technol

    (2013)
  • M. Seifollahi et al.

    Phosphoric acid-acetone process for cleaner production of acetone, butanol, and ethanol from waste cotton fibers

    J Clean Prod

    (2018)
  • N.J. Vickers

    Animal communication: when I'm calling you, will you answer too?

    Curr Biol

    (2017)
    M.M. Hasan

    Fine-tuning mesoporous adsorbent for simultaneous ultra-trace palladium(II) detection, separation and recovery

    J Ind Eng Chem

    (2015)
    T. Yaita et al.

    Selective cesium removal from radioactive liquid waste by crown ether immobilized new class conjugate adsorbent

    J Hazard Mater

    (2014)
    S. Roy et al.

    Improving valuable metal ions capturing from spent Li-ion batteries with novel materials and approaches

    J Mol Liq

    (2021)
    A. Islam et al.

    Assessment of clean H2 energy production from water using novel silicon photocatalyst

    J Clean Prod

    (2020)
  • Development O for EC and. OECD-FAO agricultural outlook 2019-2028: special focus

    (2019)
    M.S. Salman et al.

    Efficient encapsulation of toxic dye from wastewater using biodegradable polymeric adsorbent

    J Mol Liq

    (2021)
    M.N. Hasan et al.

    Sustainable detection and capturing of cerium(III) using ligand embedded solid-state conjugate adsorbent

    J Mol Liq

    (2021)
    M.M. Rahman et al.

    Arsenic sensor development based on modification with (E)-Ń-(2-nitrobenzylidine)- benzenesulfonohydrazide: a real sample analysis

    New J Chem

    (2019)
    T.A. Sheikh et al.

    Trace electrochemical detection of Ni2+ ions with bidentate N, N'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)bis(3,4-dimethoxybenzenesulfonamide) [EDBDMBS] as a chelating agent

    Inorg Chim Acta

    (2017)
  • D.O. Onukwuli et al.

    Optimization of biodiesel production from refined cotton seed oil and its characterization

    Egypt J Pet

    (2017)
  • J. Agustin Velásquez-Piñas et al.

    Production and characterization of biodiesel from cotton oil as an alternative energy in substitution of soybean oil

    J Eng Sci Technol Rev

    (2018)
  • M. Mujeli et al.

    Optimization of biodiesel production from crude cotton seed oil using central composite design

    Am J Chem Biochem Eng

    (2016)
  • N. Aryal et al.

    An overview of microbial biogas enrichment

    Bioresour Technol

    (2018)
  • S.K. Bhatia et al.

    Current status and strategies for second generation biofuel production using microbial systems

    Energy Convers Manag

    (2017)
  • B.T. Nijaguna

    Biogas technology

    (2006)
    R.M. Kamel et al.

    Efficient toxic nitrite monitoring and removal from aqueous media with ligand based conjugate materials

    J Mol Liq

    (2019)
    Y. Toyohara et al.

    Development of synthetic zeolites from bio-slag for cesium adsorption: kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic studies

    J Water Proc Eng

    (2020)
    K.T. Kubra et al.

    Enhanced toxic dye removal from wastewater using biodegradable polymeric natural adsorbent

    J Mol Liq

    (2021)
    S.H. Teo et al.

    Introducing the novel composite photocatalysts to boost the performance of hydrogen (H2) production

    J Clean Prod

    (2021)
  • L. Appels et al.

    Principles and potential of the anaerobic digestion of waste-activated sludge

    Prog Energy Combust Sci

    (2008)
  • P. Pesaresi

    The use of functional genomics to understand components of plant metabolism and the regulation occurring at molecular, cellular and whole plant levels

  • A. Isci et al.

    Biogas production potential from cotton wastes

    Renew Energy

    (2007)
  • M. Ghasemian et al.

    Enhanced biogas and biohydrogen production from cotton plant wastes using alkaline pretreatment

    Energy Fuel

    (2016)
  • A. Jeihanipour et al.

    Enhancement of ethanol and biogas production from high-crystalline cellulose by different modes of NMO pretreatment

    Biotechnol Bioeng

    (2010)
  • Preferred fiber and materials market report (PFMR) released! Textile exchange

    (2020)
  • S. Altun

    Prediction of textile waste profile and recycling opportunities in Turk

    Fibres Text East Eur

    (2012)
  • International energy outlook

    (2019)
  • R. Charnock et al.

    A pressing need to engage with the intergovernmental panel on climate change: the role of SEA scholars in syntheses of social science climate research

    Soc Environ Account J

    (2019)
  • Cited by (62)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text