THE ASSESSMENT of REFUSE DERIVED FUEL (RDF) PRODUCTION FROM TEXTILE WASTE

The increase in the world population and the improvement in living standards have led to a significant increase in textile consumption and thus textile production in recent years. Hence the amount of textile wastes generated has been increased. Some of these textile wastes are sold to scrap dealers for recycling, and some of them are thrown away or burned. 4.37% of the amount of industrial solid waste produced in Turkey are the wastes of the textile and cloth manufacturing. Recycling of textile materials can be applied only if the product consists of a single material. However, most of the products in the market are produced by mixing the fibers in order to provide different properties to the product. Hence textile wastes can be used to produce “Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF)”, which is developed for the purpose of using solid waste in the energy production plants and cement factories as fuel and/or co-fuel. Within the study, samples from a textile factory have been taken and the process of separation has been performed. The water content, calorific value, total chlorine analysis and heavy metal analysis of the 31 different samples of textile wastes have been analyzed, and the results have been evaluated according to The Statement on RDF, Additional Fuel and Alternative Raw Materials and the standards of European Union. Textile waste is one of the types of waste that can be used in the production of RDF provided that it meets the necessary conditions.