A PhD thesis on textiles wastes to ethanol and biogas

Textile and cloths in the current human society is a matter of fashion and beauty as well as its function to cover our body. We heard recetly debates from e.g. the former speaker of Swedish Environmental party on buying less cloths in order to save environment, but at the same time, we heard from KappAhl that was proud to sell more and more cloths in Sweden. The global annual fiber consumption is now more than 70,000,000 tons, including about 40% cellulose (cotton and viscose). Soon or late it is ended in waste stations.

Our PhD candidate Azam Jeihanipour has worked now about 4 years on these wastes and developed processes for conversion of textile wastes to ethanol and biogas. She will defend her thesis in two weeks on 27 May 2011. I wish her success during the defense!

Her thesis can be found here, and her published articles the thesis:

1- Ethanol production from cottonbasedwaste textiles”, Bioresource Technology (2009), 100 (2), 1007-1010

2- Enhancement of ethanol and biogas production from high-crystalline cellulose by different modes of NMMO pretreatment”, Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2010), 105 (3), 469-476.

3- A novel process for ethanol or biogas production from cellulose inblended fibers in waste textiles”, Waste Management (2010), 30 (12), 2504-2509.

4- Enhancement of solubilization rate of cellulose in anaerobic digestion and its drawbacks”, ProcessBiochemistry, in press