Textile recycling

A textile recycling system, comprising:

• a textile preprocessing structure arranged to receive textiles-to-be-recycled, the textiles to be recycled having at least some cellulose-containing articles, and the textile preprocessing structure further arranged to re-size at least some of the cellulose-containing articles to create feedstock;
• a cellulose-solvent reactor having a plurality of reaction vessels, each of the plurality of reaction vessels formed without interior corners, the cellulose-solvent reactor arranged to receive the feedstock and at least one ionic liquid in each of the plurality of reaction vessels and further arranged to create a spinning dope from the feedstock and at least one ionic liquid by staging the plurality of reaction vessels in series, moving portions of the feedstock into various ones of the plurality of reaction vessels at a first set of different times, dissolving, at least partially, some or all intermolecular cellulose bonds of the feedstock thereby creating a cellulose-bearing solution having cellulose fibers dissolved in the at least one ionic liquid;
• an agitation structure arranged to agitate the cellulose-bearing solution in the cellulose-solvent reactor;
• a cellulose coagulation bath reservoir arranged to receive the cellulose-bearing solution and further arranged to extract the spinning dope by reconstituting at least some of the dissolved cellulose fibers, wherein extracting the spinning dope in the cellulose coagulation bath reservoir includes extracting portions of the spinning dope from various ones of the plurality of reaction vessels at a second set of different times;
• and
• a wet spinning spinneret subsystem arranged to wet-spin at least some of reconstituted cellulose fibers into a continuous cellulose thread.

A cellulose-solvent reactor, comprising:

• a plurality of reaction vessels, each of the plurality of reaction vessels formed without interior corners and each of the plurality of reaction vessels arranged to contain a flowable feedstock slurry formed of ionic liquid and cellulose-containing feedstock, wherein the plurality of reaction vessels are staged in series and further arranged to move portions of the feedstock into various ones of the plurality of reaction vessels at a first set of different times;
• a control system arranged to determine a cellulose concentration of the flowable feedstock slurry in each of the plurality of reaction vessels;
• at least one transducer coupled to the control system and arranged to output electromagnetic energy into each of the plurality of reaction vessels;
• at least one sensor coupled to the control system and arranged to provide data indicative of how much electromagnetic energy from the at least one transducer has passed through flowable feedstock slurry, and
• an output port formed in each of the plurality of reaction vessels, the output ports arranged to provide a spinning dope to a coagulation bath, wherein providing the spinning dope to the coagulation bath includes extracting portions of the spinning dope from various ones of the plurality of reaction vessels at a second set of different times, and wherein the spinning dope is formed when some or all intermolecular cellulose bonds of the flowable feedstock slurry are dissolved as cellulose fibers in the ionic liquid.