Development of alternative energy sources for GHG emissions reduction in the textile industry by energy recovery from cotton ginning waste

The agricultural sector and primarily its cotton subsector are of great importance for Greece, due to the intensive agricultural activities. The wastes from cotton ginning plants are also considerable and can be valorized for bioenergy production. The substitution of conventional by green fuels, which can be produced from cotton ginning wastes, is a step towards: (a) economic and environmental sustainability for the textile industry and (b) the development of alternative energy supplies, contributing to the reduction of GHG emissions. Furthermore, it consists an especially attractive opportunity to invest in rural areas. The present paper concerns the feasibility study for energy recovery from cotton ginning waste with GHG emissions reduction in a textile plant located in Northern Greece. The aim was to replace part of heavy fuel oil used for the thermal needs of the plant by biomass. The results showed that the most economically interesting energy option for a bioenergy unit in the above textile plant is 5 MW for the coverage of the 52% of the plant's thermal requirements.