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Feathers from waterfowl (c) Daunen- und Federnverbände Mainz
05.03.2024

Adhesives: Feathers replace petroleum

Adhesives are almost always based on fossil raw materials such as petroleum. Researchers at Fraunhofer have recently developed a process that allows to utilize keratin for this purpose. This highly versatile protein compound can be found, for instance, in chicken feathers. Not only can it be used to manufacture a host of different adhesives for a variety of applications, but the processes and end products are also sustainable and follow the basic principles underlying a bioinspired circular economy. The project, developed together with Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, addresses a billion-dollar market.

Adhesives are almost always based on fossil raw materials such as petroleum. Researchers at Fraunhofer have recently developed a process that allows to utilize keratin for this purpose. This highly versatile protein compound can be found, for instance, in chicken feathers. Not only can it be used to manufacture a host of different adhesives for a variety of applications, but the processes and end products are also sustainable and follow the basic principles underlying a bioinspired circular economy. The project, developed together with Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, addresses a billion-dollar market.

Adhesives are found nearly everywhere: in sports shoes, smartphones, floor coverings, furniture, textiles or packaging. Even auto windshields are glued into place using adhesives. Experts recognize more than 1,000 different types of adhesives. These can bond almost every imaginable material to another. Adhesives weigh very little and so lend themselves to lightweight design. Surfaces bonded with adhesive do not warp because, unlike with screw fastenings, the load is distributed evenly. Adhesives do not rust, and seal out moisture. Surfaces bonded with adhesive are also less susceptible to vibration. Added to which, adhesives are inexpensive and relatively easy to work with.

Feathers from poultry meat production
Traditionally, adhesives have almost always been made from fossil raw materials such as petroleum. The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB has recently adopted a different approach. Researchers there have been using feathers as a base material instead of petroleum. Feathers are a by-product of poultry meat production. They are destroyed or mixed into animal feed. But feathers are far too valuable to go to waste because they contain the structural protein keratin. This biopolymer is found in animals and makes up talons, claws, hooves or feathers. Its fibrous structure is extremely strong.

Why keratin is perfect for manufacturing adhesives
Keratin is a biodegradable and thus eco-friendly material whose structure has specific properties that make it particularly suitable for the manufacture of adhesives. Keratin's polymer structure, i.e., its very long-chain molecules, as well as its ability to undergo cross-linking reactions predestine it for the manufacture of various adhesives. “The properties required for adhesives are to some extent already inherent in the base material and only need to be unlocked, modified and activated,” explains project manager Dr. Michael Richter.

Platform chemical and specialty adhesives
Over the past three years, Fraunhofer IGB has been working with Henkel AG & Co. KGaA on the KERAbond project: “Specialty chemicals from customized functional keratin proteins” — Kera being short for keratin, combined with the English word bond. Henkel is a global market leader in the adhesives sector.

The partners in the project have recently developed and refined a new process. In the first stage, feathers received from the slaughterhouse are sterilized, washed and mechanically shredded. Next, an enzyme process splits the long-chain biopolymers or protein chains into short-chain polymers by means of hydrolysis.

The output product is a platform chemical that can serve as a base material for further development of specially formulated adhesives. “We use the process      and the platform chemical as a “toolbox” to integrate bio-enhanced properties into the end product,” says Richter. This means parameters can be specified for the target special adhesive such as curing time, elasticity, thermal properties or strength. Also, it’s not just adhesives that are easy to manufacture but also related substances such as hardeners, coatings or primers.

In the next stage, the Fraunhofer team set about converting the feathers on a large scale. Ramping up the process fell to the Fraunhofer Center for Chemical-Biotechnological Processes CBP in Leuna. The aim was to prove that the keratin-based platform chemicals can also be manufactured cost-efficiently on an industrial scale. This involved processing several kilograms of chicken feathers, with the material produced being used for promising initial material trials at Fraunhofer IGB and Henkel.

Foundations of a bioinspired economy
This bioinspired process is of particular significance for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Biotechnology is in fact one of the main fields of research for the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft: “We draw our inspiration from functionality or properties that already exist in nature or in natural raw materials. And we attempt to translate these properties into products through innovative manufacturing methods. This generates a bioinspired cycle for valuable raw materials, Richter explains.

The project carries some economic weight. According to Statista, around one million tons of adhesives were manufactured in Germany alone in 2019. Total value is around 1.87 billion euros.

A patent application has been filed for the new process and an article published in a scientific journal. Two PhD students who have conducted extensive research on the project at Henkel and Fraunhofer are expected to complete their theses in the first quarter of 2024. This new keratin-based technology will allow a host of platform chemicals to be produced in a sustainable, bioinspired way.

The KERAbond project has been funded and supported over the past three years by Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe (FNR) in Gülzow on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) under the Renewable Resources Funding funding program (grant number 22014218).

Source:

Fraunhofer IBG

Bacteria, eating Plastic and producing Multipurpose Spider Silk Photo: Kareni, Pixabay
05.02.2024

Bacteria, eating Plastic and producing Multipurpose Spider Silk

For the first time, researchers have used bacteria to “upcycle” waste polyethylene: Move over Spider-Man: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a strain of bacteria that can turn plastic waste into a biodegradable spider silk with multiple uses.

Their new study marks the first time scientists have used bacteria to transform polyethylene plastic — the kind used in many single-use items — into a high-value protein product.

That product, which the researchers call “bio-inspired spider silk” because of its similarity to the silk spiders use to spin their webs, has applications in textiles, cosmetics, and even medicine.

For the first time, researchers have used bacteria to “upcycle” waste polyethylene: Move over Spider-Man: Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a strain of bacteria that can turn plastic waste into a biodegradable spider silk with multiple uses.

Their new study marks the first time scientists have used bacteria to transform polyethylene plastic — the kind used in many single-use items — into a high-value protein product.

That product, which the researchers call “bio-inspired spider silk” because of its similarity to the silk spiders use to spin their webs, has applications in textiles, cosmetics, and even medicine.

“Spider silk is nature’s Kevlar,” said Helen Zha, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering and one of the RPI researchers leading the project. “It can be nearly as strong as steel under tension. However, it’s six times less dense than steel, so it’s very lightweight. As a bioplastic, it’s stretchy, tough, nontoxic, and biodegradable.”

All those attributes make it a great material for a future where renewable resources and avoidance of persistent plastic pollution are the norm, Zha said.

Polyethylene plastic, found in products such as plastic bags, water bottles, and food packaging, is the biggest contributor to plastic pollution globally and can take upward of 1,000 years to degrade naturally. Only a small portion of polyethylene plastic is recycled, so the bacteria used in the study could help “upcycle” some of the remaining waste.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the bacteria used in the study, can naturally consume polyethylene as a food source. The RPI team tackled the challenge of engineering this bacteria to convert the carbon atoms of polyethylene into a genetically encoded silk protein. Surprisingly, they found that their newly developed bacteria could make the silk protein at a yield rivaling some bacteria strains that are more conventionally used in biomanufacturing.

The underlying biological process behind this innovation is something people have employed for millennia.

“Essentially, the bacteria are fermenting the plastic. Fermentation is used to make and preserve all sorts of foods, like cheese, bread, and wine, and in biochemical industries it’s used to make antibiotics, amino acids, and organic acids,” said Mattheos Koffas, Ph.D., Dorothy and Fred Chau ʼ71 Career Development Constellation Professor in Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering, and the other researcher leading the project, and who, along with Zha, is a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer.

To get bacteria to ferment polyethylene, the plastic is first “predigested,” Zha said. Just like humans need to cut and chew our food into smaller pieces before our bodies can use it, the bacteria has difficulty eating the long molecule chains, or polymers, that comprise polyethylene.

In the study, Zha and Koffas collaborated with researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, who depolymerized the plastic by heating it under pressure, producing a soft, waxy substance. Next, the team put a layer of the plastic-derived wax on the bottoms of flasks, which served as the nutrient source for the bacteria culture. This contrasts with typical fermentation, which uses sugars as the nutrient source.

“It’s as if, instead of feeding the bacteria cake, we’re feeding it the candles on the cake,” Zha said.

Then, as a warming plate gently swirled the flasks’ contents, the bacteria went to work. After 72 hours, the scientists strained out the bacteria from the liquid culture, purified the silk protein, and freeze dried it. At that stage, the protein, which resembled torn up cotton balls, could potentially be spun into thread or made into other useful forms.

“What’s really exciting about this process is that, unlike the way plastics are produced today, our process is low energy and doesn’t require the use of toxic chemicals,” Zha said. “The best chemists in the world could not convert polyethylene into spider silk, but these bacteria can. We’re really harnessing what nature has developed to do manufacturing for us.”

However, before upcycled spider silk products become a reality, the researchers will first need to find ways to make the silk protein more efficiently.

“This study establishes that we can use these bacteria to convert plastic to spider silk. Our future work will investigate whether tweaking the bacteria or other aspects of the process will allow us to scale up production,” Koffas said.

“Professors Zha and Koffas represent the new generation of chemical and biological engineers merging biological engineering with materials science to manufacture ecofriendly products. Their work is a novel approach to protecting the environment and reducing our reliance on nonrenewable resources,” said Shekhar Garde, Ph.D., dean of RPI’s School of Engineering.

The study, which was conducted by first author Alexander Connor, who earned his doctorate from RPI in 2023, and co-authors Jessica Lamb and Massimiliano Delferro with Argonne National Laboratory, is published in the journal “Microbial Cell Factories.”

Source:

Samantha Murray, Rensselaer

Converting CO2 to Solid Carbon Nanofibers (c) Zhenhua Xie/Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University; Erwei Huang/Brookhaven National Laboratory
22.01.2024

Converting CO2 to Solid Carbon Nanofibers

Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, into carbon nanofibers, materials with a wide range of unique properties and many potential long-term uses. Their strategy uses tandem electrochemical and thermochemical reactions run at relatively low temperatures and ambient pressure. As the scientists describe in the journal Nature Catalysis, this approach could successfully lock carbon away in a useful solid form to offset or even achieve negative carbon emissions.

Tandem electrocatalytic-thermocatalytic conversion could help offset emissions of potent greenhouse gas by locking carbon away in a useful material.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University have developed a way to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, into carbon nanofibers, materials with a wide range of unique properties and many potential long-term uses. Their strategy uses tandem electrochemical and thermochemical reactions run at relatively low temperatures and ambient pressure. As the scientists describe in the journal Nature Catalysis, this approach could successfully lock carbon away in a useful solid form to offset or even achieve negative carbon emissions.

“You can put the carbon nanofibers into cement to strengthen the cement,” said Jingguang Chen, a professor of chemical engineering at Columbia with a joint appointment at Brookhaven Lab who led the research. “That would lock the carbon away in concrete for at least 50 years, potentially longer. By then, the world should be shifted to primarily renewable energy sources that don’t emit carbon.”

As a bonus, the process also produces hydrogen gas (H2), a promising alternative fuel that, when used, creates zero emissions.

Capturing or converting carbon?
The idea of capturing CO2 or converting it to other materials to combat climate change is not new. But simply storing CO2 gas can lead to leaks. And many CO2 conversions produce carbon-based chemicals or fuels that are used right away, which releases CO2 right back into the atmosphere.

“The novelty of this work is that we are trying to convert CO2 into something that is value-added but in a solid, useful form,” Chen said.

Such solid carbon materials—including carbon nanotubes and nanofibers with dimensions measuring billionths of a meter—have many appealing properties, including strength and thermal and electrical conductivity. But it’s no simple matter to extract carbon from carbon dioxide and get it to assemble into these fine-scale structures. One direct, heat-driven process requires temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees Celsius.

“It’s very unrealistic for large-scale CO2 mitigation,” Chen said. “In contrast, we found a process that can occur at about 400 degrees Celsius, which is a much more practical, industrially achievable temperature.”

The tandem two-step
The trick was to break the reaction into stages and to use two different types of catalysts—materials that make it easier for molecules to come together and react.

“If you decouple the reaction into several sub-reaction steps you can consider using different kinds of energy input and catalysts to make each part of the reaction work,” said Brookhaven Lab and Columbia research scientist Zhenhua Xie, lead author on the paper.

The scientists started by realizing that carbon monoxide (CO) is a much better starting material than CO2 for making carbon nanofibers (CNF). Then they backtracked to find the most efficient way to generate CO from CO2.

Earlier work from their group steered them to use a commercially available electrocatalyst made of palladium supported on carbon. Electrocatalysts drive chemical reactions using an electric current. In the presence of flowing electrons and protons, the catalyst splits both CO2 and water (H2O) into CO and H2.

For the second step, the scientists turned to a heat-activated thermocatalyst made of an iron-cobalt alloy. It operates at temperatures around 400 degrees Celsius, significantly milder than a direct CO2-to-CNF conversion would require. They also discovered that adding a bit of extra metallic cobalt greatly enhances the formation of the carbon nanofibers.

“By coupling electrocatalysis and thermocatalysis, we are using this tandem process to achieve things that cannot be achieved by either process alone,” Chen said.

Catalyst characterization
To discover the details of how these catalysts operate, the scientists conducted a wide range of experiments. These included computational modeling studies, physical and chemical characterization studies at Brookhaven Lab’s National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)—using the Quick X-ray Absorption and Scattering (QAS) and Inner-Shell Spectroscopy (ISS) beamlines—and microscopic imaging at the Electron Microscopy facility at the Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN).

On the modeling front, the scientists used “density functional theory” (DFT) calculations to analyze the atomic arrangements and other characteristics of the catalysts when interacting with the active chemical environment.

“We are looking at the structures to determine what are the stable phases of the catalyst under reaction conditions,” explained study co-author Ping Liu of Brookhaven’s Chemistry Division who led these calculations. “We are looking at active sites and how these sites are bonding with the reaction intermediates. By determining the barriers, or transition states, from one step to another, we learn exactly how the catalyst is functioning during the reaction.”

X-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption experiments at NSLS-II tracked how the catalysts change physically and chemically during the reactions. For example, synchrotron x-rays revealed how the presence of electric current transforms metallic palladium in the catalyst into palladium hydride, a metal that is key to producing both H2 and CO in the first reaction stage.

For the second stage, “We wanted to know what’s the structure of the iron-cobalt system under reaction conditions and how to optimize the iron-cobalt catalyst,” Xie said. The x-ray experiments confirmed that both an alloy of iron and cobalt plus some extra metallic cobalt are present and needed to convert CO to carbon nanofibers.

“The two work together sequentially,” said Liu, whose DFT calculations helped explain the process.

“According to our study, the cobalt-iron sites in the alloy help to break the C-O bonds of carbon monoxide. That makes atomic carbon available to serve as the source for building carbon nanofibers. Then the extra cobalt is there to facilitate the formation of the C-C bonds that link up the carbon atoms,” she explained.

Recycle-ready, carbon-negative
“Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis conducted at CFN revealed the morphologies, crystal structures, and elemental distributions within the carbon nanofibers both with and without catalysts,” said CFN scientist and study co-author Sooyeon Hwang.

The images show that, as the carbon nanofibers grow, the catalyst gets pushed up and away from the surface. That makes it easy to recycle the catalytic metal, Chen said.

“We use acid to leach the metal out without destroying the carbon nanofiber so we can concentrate the metals and recycle them to be used as a catalyst again,” he said.

This ease of catalyst recycling, commercial availability of the catalysts, and relatively mild reaction conditions for the second reaction all contribute to a favorable assessment of the energy and other costs associated with the process, the researchers said.

“For practical applications, both are really important—the CO2 footprint analysis and the recyclability of the catalyst,” said Chen. “Our technical results and these other analyses show that this tandem strategy opens a door for decarbonizing CO2 into valuable solid carbon products while producing renewable H2.”

If these processes are driven by renewable energy, the results would be truly carbon-negative, opening new opportunities for CO2 mitigation.

Source:

Brookhaven National Laboratory

New conductive, cotton-based fiber developed for smart textiles Photo: Dean Hare, WSU Photo Services
29.12.2023

New conductive, cotton-based fiber developed for smart textiles

A single strand of fiber developed at Washington State University has the flexibility of cotton and the electric conductivity of a polymer, called polyaniline.

The newly developed material showed good potential for wearable e-textiles. The WSU researchers tested the fibers with a system that powered an LED light and another that sensed ammonia gas, detailing their findings in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers.

“We have one fiber in two sections: one section is the conventional cotton: flexible and strong enough for everyday use, and the other side is the conductive material,” said Hang Liu, WSU textile researcher and the study’s corresponding author. “The cotton can support the conductive material which can provide the needed function.”

A single strand of fiber developed at Washington State University has the flexibility of cotton and the electric conductivity of a polymer, called polyaniline.

The newly developed material showed good potential for wearable e-textiles. The WSU researchers tested the fibers with a system that powered an LED light and another that sensed ammonia gas, detailing their findings in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers.

“We have one fiber in two sections: one section is the conventional cotton: flexible and strong enough for everyday use, and the other side is the conductive material,” said Hang Liu, WSU textile researcher and the study’s corresponding author. “The cotton can support the conductive material which can provide the needed function.”

While more development is needed, the idea is to integrate fibers like these into apparel as sensor patches with flexible circuits. These patches could be part of uniforms for firefighters, soldiers or workers who handle chemicals to detect for hazardous exposures. Other applications include health monitoring or exercise shirts that can do more than current fitness monitors.

“We have some smart wearables, like smart watches, that can track your movement and human vital signs, but we hope that in the future your everyday clothing can do these functions as well,” said Liu. “Fashion is not just color and style, as a lot of people think about it: fashion is science.”

In this study, the WSU team worked to overcome the challenges of mixing the conductive polymer with cotton cellulose. Polymers are substances with very large molecules that have repeating patterns. In this case, the researchers used polyaniline, also known as PANI, a synthetic polymer with conductive properties already used in applications such as printed circuit board manufacturing.

While intrinsically conductive, polyaniline is brittle and by itself, cannot be made into a fiber for textiles. To solve this, the WSU researchers dissolved cotton cellulose from recycled t-shirts into a solution and the conductive polymer into another separate solution. These two solutions were then merged together side-by-side, and the material was extruded to make one fiber.

The result showed good interfacial bonding, meaning the molecules from the different materials would stay together through stretching and bending.

Achieving the right mixture at the interface of cotton cellulose and polyaniline was a delicate balance, Liu said.

“We wanted these two solutions to work so that when the cotton and the conductive polymer contact each other they mix to a certain degree to kind of glue together, but we didn’t want them to mix too much, otherwise the conductivity would be reduced,” she said.

Additional WSU authors on this study included first author Wangcheng Liu as well as Zihui Zhao, Dan Liang, Wei-Hong Zhong and Jinwen Zhang. This research received support from the National Science Foundation and the Walmart Foundation Project.

Source:

Sara Zaske, WSU News & Media Relations

Firefighter Photo: 12019 at Pixabay
11.12.2023

Study tests firefighter turnout gear with, without PFAS


Transitioning away from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which offer water- and oil-repelling properties on the outer shells of firefighter turnout gear, could bring potential performance tradeoffs, according to a new study from North Carolina State University.

The study showed that turnout gear without PFAS outer shell coatings were not oil-repellent, posing a potential flammability hazard to firefighters if exposed to oil and flame, said Bryan Ormond, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the research.

“All oil repellents can also repel water, but all water repellents don’t necessarily repel oil,” Ormond said. “Diesel fuel is really difficult to repel, as is hydraulic fluid; in our testing, PFAS-treated materials repel both. In our tests, turnout gear without PFAS repelled water but not oil or hydraulic fluid.


Transitioning away from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which offer water- and oil-repelling properties on the outer shells of firefighter turnout gear, could bring potential performance tradeoffs, according to a new study from North Carolina State University.

The study showed that turnout gear without PFAS outer shell coatings were not oil-repellent, posing a potential flammability hazard to firefighters if exposed to oil and flame, said Bryan Ormond, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the research.

“All oil repellents can also repel water, but all water repellents don’t necessarily repel oil,” Ormond said. “Diesel fuel is really difficult to repel, as is hydraulic fluid; in our testing, PFAS-treated materials repel both. In our tests, turnout gear without PFAS repelled water but not oil or hydraulic fluid.

“Further, oils seem to spread out even more on the PFAS-free gear, potentially increasing the hazard.”

PFAS chemicals – known as forever chemicals because of their environmental persistence – are used in food packaging, cookware and cosmetics, among other uses, but have recently been implicated in higher risks of cancer, higher cholesterol levels and compromised immune systems in humans. In response, firefighters have sought alternative chemical compounds – like the hydrocarbon wax coating used in the study – on turnout gear to repel water and oils.

Besides testing the oil- and water-repelling properties of PFAS-treated and PFAS-free outer garments, the NC State researchers also compared how the outer shells aged in job-related exposures like weathering, high heat and repeated laundering, and whether the garments remained durable and withstood tears and rips.

The study showed that PFAS-treated and PFAS-free outer shells performed similarly after exposure to UV rays and various levels of heat and moisture, as well as passes through heating equipment – similar to a pizza oven – and through washing machines.

“Laundering the gear is actually very damaging to turnout gear because of the washing machine’s agitation and cleaning agents used,” Ormond said.

“We also performed chemical analyses to see what’s happening during the weathering process,” said Nur Mazumder, an NC State doctoral student in fiber and polymer science and lead author of the paper. “Are we losing the PFAS chemistries, the PFAS-free chemistries or both when we age the garments? It turns out that we lost significant amounts of both of these finishes after the aging tests.”

Both types of garments performed similarly when tested for strength against tearing the outer shell fabric. The researchers say the PFAS and PFAS-free coatings didn’t seem to affect this attribute.

Ormond said that future work will explore how much oil repellency is needed by firefighters out in the field.
“Even with PFAS treatment, you see a difference between a splash of fluid and soaked-in fluid,” Ormond said. “For all of its benefits, PFAS-treated gear, when soaked, is dangerous to firefighters. So we need to really ask ‘What do firefighters need?’ If you’re not experiencing this need for oil repellency, there’s no worry about switching to non-PFAS gear. But firefighters need to know the non-PFAS gear will absorb oil, regardless of what those oils are.”

Andrew Hall, another NC State doctoral student in fiber and polymer science and co-author on the paper, is also testing dermal absorption, or taking the aged outer shell materials and placing them on a skin surrogate for a day or two. Are outer shell chemicals absorbed in the skin surrogate after these admittedly extreme exposure durations?

“Firefighting as a job is classified as a carcinogen but it shouldn’t have to be,” Ormond said. “How do we make better gear for them? How do we come up with better finishes and strategies for them?

“These aren’t just fabrics,” Ormond said. “They are highly engineered pieces of material that aren’t easily replaced.”

The paper appears in the Journal of Industrial Textiles. Funding for the research came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program.

Source:

North Carolina State University, Mick Kulikowski

06.11.2023

Shape-shifting fiber can produce morphing fabrics

The low-cost FibeRobo, which is compatible with existing textile manufacturing techniques, could be used in adaptive performance wear or compression garments.

Researchers from MIT and Northeastern University developed a liquid crystal elastomer fiber that can change its shape in response to thermal stimuli. The fiber, which is fully compatible with existing textile manufacturing machinery, could be used to make morphing textiles, like a jacket that becomes more insulating to keep the wearer warm when temperatures drop.

The low-cost FibeRobo, which is compatible with existing textile manufacturing techniques, could be used in adaptive performance wear or compression garments.

Researchers from MIT and Northeastern University developed a liquid crystal elastomer fiber that can change its shape in response to thermal stimuli. The fiber, which is fully compatible with existing textile manufacturing machinery, could be used to make morphing textiles, like a jacket that becomes more insulating to keep the wearer warm when temperatures drop.

Instead of needing a coat for each season, imagine having a jacket that would dynamically change shape so it becomes more insulating to keep you warm as the temperature drops.
A programmable, actuating fiber developed by an interdisciplinary team of MIT researchers could someday make this vision a reality. Known as FibeRobo, the fiber contracts in response to an increase in temperature, then self-reverses when the temperature decreases, without any embedded sensors or other hard components.

The low-cost fiber is fully compatible with textile manufacturing techniques, including weaving looms, embroidery, and industrial knitting machines, and can be produced continuously by the kilometer. This could enable designers to easily incorporate actuation and sensing capabilities into a wide range of fabrics for myriad applications.

The fibers can also be combined with conductive thread, which acts as a heating element when electric current runs through it. In this way, the fibers actuate using electricity, which offers a user digital control over a textile’s form. For instance, a fabric could change shape based on any piece of digital information, such as readings from a heart rate sensor.

“We use textiles for everything. We make planes with fiber-reinforced composites, we cover the International Space Station with a radiation-shielding fabric, we use them for personal expression and performance wear. So much of our environment is adaptive and responsive, but the one thing that needs to be the most adaptive and responsive — textiles — is completely inert,” says Jack Forman, a graduate student in the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab, with a secondary affiliation at the Center for Bits and Atoms, and lead author of a paper on the actuating fiber.

He is joined on the paper by 11 other researchers at MIT and Northeastern University, including his advisors, Professor Neil Gershenfeld, who leads the Center for Bits and Atoms, and Hiroshi Ishii, the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and director of the Tangible Media Group. The research will be presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.

Morphing materials
The MIT researchers wanted a fiber that could actuate silently and change its shape dramatically, while being compatible with common textile manufacturing procedures. To achieve this, they used a material known as liquid crystal elastomer (LCE).

A liquid crystal is a series of molecules that can flow like liquid, but when they’re allowed to settle, they stack into a periodic crystal arrangement. The researchers incorporate these crystal structures into an elastomer network, which is stretchy like a rubber band.

As the LCE material heats up, the crystal molecules fall out of alignment and pull the elastomer network together, causing the fiber to contract. When the heat is removed, the molecules return to their original alignment, and the material to its original length, Forman explains.

By carefully mixing chemicals to synthesize the LCE, the researchers can control the final properties of the fiber, such as its thickness or the temperature at which it actuates.

They perfected a preparation technique that creates LCE fiber which can actuate at skin-safe temperatures, making it suitable for wearable fabrics.

“There are a lot of knobs we can turn. It was a lot of work to come up with this process from scratch, but ultimately it gives us a lot of freedom for the resulting fiber,” he adds.
However, the researchers discovered that making fiber from LCE resin is a finicky process. Existing techniques often result in a fused mass that is impossible to unspool.

Researchers are also exploring other ways to make functional fibers, such as by incorporating hundreds of microscale digital chips into a polymer, utilizing an activated fluidic system, or including piezoelectric material that can convert sound vibrations into electrical signals.

Fiber fabrication
Forman built a machine using 3D-printed and laser-cut parts and basic electronics to overcome the fabrication challenges. He initially built the machine as part of the graduate-level course MAS.865 (Rapid-Prototyping of Rapid-Prototyping Machines: How to Make Something that Makes [almost] Anything).

To begin, the thick and viscous LCE resin is heated, and then slowly squeezed through a nozzle like that of a glue gun. As the resin comes out, it is cured carefully using UV lights that shine on both sides of the slowly extruding fiber.

If the light is too dim, the material will separate and drip out of the machine, but if it is too bright, clumps can form, which yields bumpy fibers.

Then the fiber is dipped in oil to give it a slippery coating and cured again, this time with UV lights turned up to full blast, creating a strong and smooth fiber. Finally, it is collected into a top spool and dipped in powder so it will slide easily into machines for textile manufacturing.
From chemical synthesis to finished spool, the process takes about a day and produces approximately a kilometer of ready-to-use fiber.

“At the end of the day, you don’t want a diva fiber. You want a fiber that, when you are working with it, falls into the ensemble of materials — one that you can work with just like any other fiber material, but then it has a lot of exciting new capabilities,” Forman says.

Creating such a fiber took a great deal of trial and error, as well as the collaboration of researchers with expertise in many disciplines, from chemistry to mechanical engineering to electronics to design.

The resulting fiber, called FibeRobo, can contract up to 40 percent without bending, actuate at skin-safe temperatures (the skin-safe version of the fiber contracts up to about 25 percent), and be produced with a low-cost setup for 20 cents per meter, which is about 60 times cheaper than commercially available shape-changing fibers.

The fiber can be incorporated into industrial sewing and knitting machines, as well as nonindustrial processes like hand looms or manual crocheting, without the need for any process modifications.
The MIT researchers used FibeRobo to demonstrate several applications, including an adaptive sports bra made by embroidery that tightens when the user begins exercising.

They also used an industrial knitting machine to create a compression jacket for Forman’s dog, whose name is Professor. The jacket would actuate and “hug” the dog based on a Bluetooth signal from Forman’s smartphone. Compression jackets are commonly used to alleviate the separation anxiety a dog can feel while its owner is away.

In the future, the researchers want to adjust the fiber’s chemical components so it can be recyclable or biodegradable. They also want to streamline the polymer synthesis process so users without wet lab expertise could make it on their own.

Forman is excited to see the FibeRobo applications other research groups identify as they build on these early results. In the long run, he hopes FibeRobo can become something a maker could buy in a craft store, just like a ball of yarn, and use to easily produce morphing fabrics.

“LCE fibers come to life when integrated into functional textiles. It is particularly fascinating to observe how the authors have explored creative textile designs using a variety of weaving and knitting patterns,” says Lining Yao, the Cooper-Siegel Associate Professor of Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, who was not involved with this work.

This research was supported, in part, by the William Asbjornsen Albert Memorial Fellowship, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor Program, Toppan Printing Co., Honda Research, Chinese Scholarship Council, and Shima Seiki. The team included Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Sarah Nicita, Rosalie (Hsin-Ju) Lin, Liu Yang, Akshay Kothakonda, Zachary Gordon, and Cedric Honnet at MIT; and Megan Hofmann and Kristen Dorsey at Northeastern University.

Source:

MIT and Northeastern University

Heimtextil Trends 24/25 © SPOTT trends & business for Heimtextil
12.09.2023

Heimtextil Trends 24/25: New Sensitivity

Under the theme "New Sensitivity", textile transformation is the focus of Heimtextil Trends 24/25. Three approaches show ways to a more sensitive world of textiles: the plant-based production of textiles, the support of textile cycles by technology and the bioengineered use of natural ingredients. In addition, Future Materials curates regenerative materials and designs.
 
After last year's focus on circular solutions, Heimtextil Trends 24/25 will once again shed light on transformative textile innovations.
Under the title "New Sensitivity," the focus is on innovations and changes in the composition of textiles, in addition to aesthetic aspects. "In this context, sensitivity means considering the impact on the environment when making a decision or creating a product. Understanding how natural ecosystems work and prioritising balance as the default are key," says Anja Bisgaard Gaede, Founder of SPOTT trends & business.

Under the theme "New Sensitivity", textile transformation is the focus of Heimtextil Trends 24/25. Three approaches show ways to a more sensitive world of textiles: the plant-based production of textiles, the support of textile cycles by technology and the bioengineered use of natural ingredients. In addition, Future Materials curates regenerative materials and designs.
 
After last year's focus on circular solutions, Heimtextil Trends 24/25 will once again shed light on transformative textile innovations.
Under the title "New Sensitivity," the focus is on innovations and changes in the composition of textiles, in addition to aesthetic aspects. "In this context, sensitivity means considering the impact on the environment when making a decision or creating a product. Understanding how natural ecosystems work and prioritising balance as the default are key," says Anja Bisgaard Gaede, Founder of SPOTT trends & business.

How does New Sensitivity translate into something concrete in the lifestyle industry, and what does having a sensitive approach to design and products mean? Also the adoption of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is transforming current times. AGI has the potential to bring innovative solutions and help tackle significant challenges, also in the textile industry. However, AGI can have the opposite effect on society. AGI needs the mindset of New Sensitivity that helps simplify complexity, expand creativity, and find unseen solutions, also within the world of textiles.
     
"With Heimtextil Trends 24/25: New Sensitivity, we encourage the textile industry to approach the future with thoughtfulness and consideration. Specifically, we see this change in three different trends for a more sensitive world of textiles: biotechnical, plant-based and technological," Bisgaard Gaede continues.

Plant-based: textiles made from plant crops or plant by-products
Plant-based textiles mean that the fibres are derived from something that grows rather than being synthetically produced. The sustainable advantage of plant-based textiles is that their origin is natural and, therefore, more able to recirculate in existing ecosystems. They can be divided into two groups. The first group of textiles are made from plant crops. New resilient crops like cactus, hemp, abaca, seaweed, and rubber offer new sustainable textile solutions. Because of mechanical extraction, they can grow despite climate changes and require fewer chemicals in their development. The second group consists of textiles made of plant by-products which are leftover raw materials from production such as banana, olive, persimmon and hemp.

Technological: technology and technical solutions transforming textiles
Technology can support the transformation of textiles through the use of different methods: upcycling and recycling of textiles, textile construction, and textile design. Due to decades of production, textiles are now a material available in abundance. Developing technologies for recycling textile waste and methods for upcycling textiles increases the circular usage of existing textiles. Furthermore, old textile construction techniques also offer pathways to sustainable solutions: For instance, using knitting technology for furniture upholstery produces less fabric waste; alternatively, weaving technique allows the creation of several colours using only a few coloured yarns. Textile Design Thinking is another method that addresses critical issues such as energy usage and durability of natural fibres and enhances these through technological textile advancement.

Bio-engineered: engineered to enhance bio-degrading
To a certain degree, bio-engineered textiles represent a fusion of plant-based and technological textiles. Bio-engineering bridges nature and technology and transforms the way textiles are made. They can be divided into two directions: fully bio-engineered and bio-degradable textiles. In the production of fully bio-engineered textiles nature-inspired strategies are adopted. Instead of growing plants and extracting their fibres, textiles are made from the protein, carbohydrates, or bacteria in corn, grass, and cane sugar. Manufacturing involves a bio-molecular process that creates filaments which are made into yarn. The sustainable advantage of bio-engineered textiles is that they can have some of the same functionalities as synthetically produced textiles, while still being biodegradable because of their natural origin. Biodegradable fibres can be added to conventional textiles like polyester to enhance the conventional textiles’ ability to revert to materials found in nature and hence biodegrade in natural environments such as water or soil. Although not biodegrading completely, these bio-enhanced textiles will biodegrade up to 93 % compared to conventional textiles.

Heimtextil Trends 24/25: new colourways
A sensitive approach to colouring methods is expressed by a dynamic yet subtle colour palette created through natural pigments deriving from the earth, as traditional colouring processes are brought to the next level through innovative bioengineering technology. In pursuit of creating colours that evoke emotions in our senses while at the same time respecting our values in protecting the environment, we see colour bacteria growing pigments generating hues with great richness and depth.
               
This New Sensitivity includes acceptance of natural colour flows, as colours may fade with time or morph into new colourways. The colourways for Heimtextil Trends 24/25 were inspired by natural colours deriving from avocado seeds, algae, living bacteria, antique pigments such as raw sienna, and bio-engineered indigo and cochineal. The high black component in most colours allows for widespread application and a greater variety of combinations. The punchy saturated accents enhance our senses as they lift our spirits. In contrast, the grounding neutrals in different shades of grey, terra and even dark purple allow for calmness and tranquillity.

Future Materials: regenerative design
How are regenerative textiles and materials defined? Regenerative design is dedicated to developing holistic creative practices that restore or renew resources, have a positive impact on the environment, and encourage communities to thrive. For Heimtextil 2024, design futures consultancy FranklinTill is curating a global showcase of cutting-edge textiles and materials to illustrate the principles of regenerative design and recognize pioneering designers, producers and manufacturers who are at the forefront of regenerative design.
The Trend Space at Heimtextil in Frankfurt, Germany, January 9-12, 2023, will showcase these pioneering solutions in an inspiring way. In addition, Heimtextil Trends will offer visitors orientation and insights into the future of home and contract textiles in the form of workshops, lectures and other interactive formats.

Source:

Heimtextil, Messe Frankfurt

Point of View: Let’s end fast fashion, Prof Minna Halme. Photo: Veera Konsti / Aalto University
18.08.2023

Point of View: Let’s end fast fashion

Focusing on short-term profit isn’t sustainable. So what can we do to move in the right direction: favour resilience over efficiency in all industries.

We buy cheap products knowing we’ll need to replace them soon. We throw out used items rather than repairing or re-using them. Our employers plan in terms of financial quarters despite hoping to remain relevant and resilient longer-term. Even countries prioritise short-term economic output, focusing on gross domestic product (GDP) above any other indicator.

But does this way of living, working and weighing decisions make sense in the 21st century?

Our global obsession with economic short-term efficiency – and how to transform it – is a conundrum that Professor of Sustainability Management Minna Halme has been thinking about for most of her career. Even as a business school student, she felt flummoxed by how focused her classes were on short-term goals.

Focusing on short-term profit isn’t sustainable. So what can we do to move in the right direction: favour resilience over efficiency in all industries.

We buy cheap products knowing we’ll need to replace them soon. We throw out used items rather than repairing or re-using them. Our employers plan in terms of financial quarters despite hoping to remain relevant and resilient longer-term. Even countries prioritise short-term economic output, focusing on gross domestic product (GDP) above any other indicator.

But does this way of living, working and weighing decisions make sense in the 21st century?

Our global obsession with economic short-term efficiency – and how to transform it – is a conundrum that Professor of Sustainability Management Minna Halme has been thinking about for most of her career. Even as a business school student, she felt flummoxed by how focused her classes were on short-term goals.

'It was about selling more, about maximising shareholder profits, about economic growth – but not really asking, Why? What's the purpose of all this?'

Halme says. 'Even 20-year-old me somehow just felt that this was strange.

'What are we trying to do here? Are we trying to create a better economy for all, or most, people? Whose lives are we trying to improve when we are selling more differently-packaged types of yoghurt or clothes that quickly become obsolete?'

Halme has devoted her career to studying these questions. Today, she is a thought leader in innovative business practices, with recognitions including serving on Finland's National Expert Panel for Sustainable Development and on the United Nation's Panel on Global Sustainability.

Her ultimate goal? Pioneering, researching and advocating for alternative ways of thinking that prioritise values like long-term economic sustainability and resilience – alternatives that she and other experts believe would provide more lasting, widespread benefit to all.

How traditional indicators have failed
One way in which our preference for economic efficiency shapes how we measure a country's overall well-being or status is GDP. This isn't the fault of the originator of the modern concept of GDP, who specifically warned against using it in this way in the 1930s.

'GDP was never meant to tell us about the wellbeing of the citizens of a country,' Halme says. Seventy-five years ago, however, it was easy to conflate the two. Many countries were more committed to redistributing their wealth among their citizens, and population surveys show that until the 1970s, GDP often correlated with general wellbeing.

But with the rise of increasingly heedless free-market capitalism, this became less the case – and GDP's shortcomings became all the more apparent. 'We are in a situation where the wealth distribution is more and more trickling up to those who already have capital. Those who don't have it are in declining economic positions,' Halme says. In fact, the richest 1% of the global population now own nearly half of the world's wealth.

Some governments, such as Finland's, do take indicators of environmental and social progress into account. 'But none is considered as important for decision-making as GDP,' Halme says – and GDP is also considered the arbiter of a government's success. It is that attitude that, through her work advising the Finnish government on sustainability practises as well as in her own research, Halme is trying to shift.

Where industries have failed
Our often-exclusive focus on the economy – and, in particular, on making profits as quickly and efficiently as possible – doesn’t provide a clear picture of how everyone in a society is faring. Worse yet, it has encouraged industries to act with a short-term view that makes for longer-term problems.

Fast fashion is one example. At the moment, supply chains for clothing – as for most other goods – are linear. Raw materials come from one place and are transformed step by step, usually at different factories around the world, using materials, energy and transport that are “cheap” because their high environmental costs aren’t included. They are ultimately purchased by a consumer, who wears the product temporarily before discarding it. To expand profit margins, the industry pushes fast-changing trends. A shocking amount of this clothing ends up in landfill – some of it before it's even been worn.

As the COVID lockdowns showed, this kind of linear supply system isn't resilient. Nor is it sustainable.

Currently, fashion is estimated to be the world's second most polluting industry, accounting for up to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Aalto University researchers have reported that the industry produces more than 92 million tonnes of landfill waste per year. By 2030, that is expected to rise to 134 million tonnes.

Cutting fashion's carbon footprint isn't just good for the environment; it will help the longer-term prospects of the industry itself. 'With this kind of wrong thinking about efficiency, you're eroding the basis of our long-term resilience both for ecology and for society,' Halme says.

Getting out of this trap, she and other researchers say, requires a complete paradigm shift. 'It's really difficult to just tweak around the edges,' she says.

Towards resilience
For several years, Halme researched and studied ecological efficiency, looking at ways that businesses could make more products with a smaller environmental impact. But gradually she realised this wasn't the answer. Although businesses could innovate to have more efficient products and technologies, their absolute use of natural resource use kept growing.

'I began to think, "If not efficiency, then what?"' Halme says. She realised the answer was resilience: fostering ways for systems, including the environment, to continue and even regenerate in the future, rather than continuing to degrade them in the present.

The solution isn’t more of anything, even ‘sustainable’ materials. It’s less.

'The only way to fix fast fashion is to end it,' Halme and her co-authors write. This means designing clothes to last, business models that make reuse and repair more accessible, and prioritising upcycling. Recycling systems also need to be overhauled for when an item really is at the end of its life – particularly regarding blended synthetic fibres, which are difficult to separate and break down.

This would upend the current focus on short-term revenue above all else. And, says Halme, it is one more example of how we need better ways to measure the success of these industries, taking into account factors like resilience and sustainability – rather than just short-term profits.

And while individuals can make an impact, these changes ultimately have to be industry-led.

'Textiles are a good example, because if they break quickly, and if you don't have repair services nearby, or if the fabrics are of such lousy quality that it doesn't make any sense to repair them, then it's too much trouble for most people,' Halme says. 'So most solutions should come from the business side. And the attempt should be to make it both fashionable and easy for consumers to make ecologically and socially sustainable choices.'

What will it take?
The ultimate challenge, says Lauri Saarinen, Assistant Professor at the Aalto University Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, is how to shift towards a more sustainable model while keeping companies competitive. But he believes there are ways.

One option is to keep production local. 'If we compete with low-cost, offshore manufacturing by doing things more locally, and in a closed loop, then we get the double benefit of actually providing some local work and moving towards a more sustainable supply chain,' Saarinen says. For example, if clothing were produced closer to consumers, it would be easier to send garments back for repair or for brands to take back used items and resell them.

Local production is yet another example of the need to rethink how we measure societal success. After all, outsourcing and offshoring in favour of cheaper production may appear to cut costs in short term, but this is done at the expense of what Halme and other experts argue really matters – longer-term economic viability, resilience and sustainability.

Shifting towards this kind of thinking isn't easy. Still, Saarinen and Halme have seen promising signs.

In Finland, for example, Halme points to the start-up Menddie, which makes it easy and convenient to send items away for repairs or alterations. She also highlights the clothing and lifestyle brand Marimekko, which re-sells its used items in an online secondhand shop, and the Anna Ruohonen label, a made-to-measurecollection and customer on-demand concept which creates no excess garments.

It's these kinds of projects that Halme finds interesting – and that, through her work, she hopes to both advocate for and pioneer.

At the moment, she says, these changes haven't yet added up to a true transformation. On a global scale, we remain far from a genuine shift towards longer-term resilience. But as she points out, that can change quickly. After all, it has in the past. Just look at what got us here.

'The pursuit of economic growth became such a dominant focus in a relatively short time – only about seven decades,' she says. 'The shift toward longer-term resilience is certainly possible. Scientists and decision-makers just need to change their main goal to long-term resilience. The key question is, are our most powerful economic players wise enough to do so?'

As part of her research, Halme has led projects pioneering the kinds of changes that the fashion industry could adapt. For example, along with her Aalto colleague Linda Turunen, she recently developed a measurement that the fashion industry could use to classify how sustainable a product really is – measuring things like its durability, how easily it can be recycled, and whether its production uses hazardous chemicals – which could help consumers to decide whether to buy. Her colleagues curated a recent exhibition that showcased what we might be wearing in a sustainable future, such as a leather alternative made from discarded flower cuttings, or modular designs to get multiple uses from the same garment – turning a skirt into a shirt, for example.
 
Because all of this requires longer-term thinking, innovation and investment, industry is reticent to make these shifts, Halme says. One way to encourage industries to change more quickly is with regulation. In the European Union, for example, an updated set of directives now requires companies with more than 500 employees to report on a number of corporate responsibility factors, ranging from environmental impact to the treatment of employees. These rules won't just help inform consumers, investors and other stakeholders about a company's role in global challenges. They’ll also help assess investment risks – weighing whether a company is taking the actions necessary to be financially resilient in the long-term.

Source:

Aalto University, Amanda Ruggeri

Functional textiles – an alternative to antibiotics University of Borås
04.07.2023

Functional textiles – an alternative to antibiotics

Tuser Biswas conducts research that aims to develop modern medical textiles that are good for both the environment and human health. Textiles with antimicrobial properties could reduce the use of antibiotics.

Tuser Biswas conducts research that aims to develop modern medical textiles that are good for both the environment and human health. Textiles with antimicrobial properties could reduce the use of antibiotics.

His work involves research and teaching activities within the area of textile material technology. The current research involves resource-efficient inkjet printing of functional materials on various textile surfaces for advanced applications.
 
The conventional textile industry devours natural resources in the form of water, energy, and chemicals. A more resource-efficient way to produce textiles is with ink jet printing. Tuser Biswas, who recently defended his doctoral thesis in Textile Material Technology, seeks to develop methods for functional textiles. He has shown that it is possible to print enzymes on textiles. These are proteins that function as catalysts in the body, as they set chemical processes in motion without themselves changing. They could, for example, be used in medical textiles with antimicrobial properties or to measure biological or chemical reactions.

“Ever since the industrial revolution, our society has used an abundance of synthetic and harsh chemicals. Our research works to replace these chemicals with environmentally friendly and bio-based materials,” said Tuser Biswas.
 
Promising results with enzymes on textiles
Developing a good enzyme ink was not entirely easy and it took a number of attempts before he finally, to his great joy, had successful results. Tuser Biswas explained that the most important result is to show how a printed enzyme could bind another enzyme to the surface of a fabric. Although the activity of the enzymes decreased by 20-30 percent after printing, the results are still promising for future applications. At the same time, the work has provided new knowledge about many fundamental questions about printing biomaterials on fabric.

“Before starting the project, we found several related studies that focused on producing a finished product. But we wanted to study the fundamental challenges of this subject, and now we know how to make it work,” said Tuser Biswas.

He is now seeking funding to continue researching the subject and has so far received a grant from the Sjuhärad Savings Bank Foundation. During the Days of Knowledge event in April 2023, he presented his research to representatives from the City of Borås and business, the Sjuhärad Savings Bank Foundation, and the University of Borås.
     
Medical textiles instead of antibiotics
Tuser Biswas hopes that continued research in textile technology can provide alternatives to using antibiotics. With increasing antibiotic resistance, it is an important issue not only locally but worldwide.

“Instead of treating the patient with a course of antibiotics, one can act preventively and more effectively by damaging the bacteria on the surface where they start to grow. In a wound dressing, for example. Nanoparticle-based antimicrobials can reduce growth effectively. It is possible as nanoparticles can interact better with the bacterial membrane and reach the target more easily than conventional antimicrobials.”

Source:

Lina Färm. Translation by Eva Medin. University of Borås

Photo: Unsplash
13.06.2023

The impact of textile production and waste on the environment

  • With fast fashion, the quantity of clothes produced and thrown away has boomed.

Fast fashion is the constant provision of new styles at very low prices. To tackle the impact on the environment, the EU wants to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. This is part of the plan to achieve a circular economy by 2050.

Overconsumption of natural resources
It takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres. It is estimated that the global textile and clothing industry used 79 billion cubic metres of water in 2015, while the needs of the EU's whole economy amounted to 266 billion cubic metres in 2017.

To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.

  • With fast fashion, the quantity of clothes produced and thrown away has boomed.

Fast fashion is the constant provision of new styles at very low prices. To tackle the impact on the environment, the EU wants to reduce textile waste and increase the life cycle and recycling of textiles. This is part of the plan to achieve a circular economy by 2050.

Overconsumption of natural resources
It takes a lot of water to produce textile, plus land to grow cotton and other fibres. It is estimated that the global textile and clothing industry used 79 billion cubic metres of water in 2015, while the needs of the EU's whole economy amounted to 266 billion cubic metres in 2017.

To make a single cotton t-shirt, 2,700 litres of fresh water are required according to estimates, enough to meet one person’s drinking needs for 2.5 years.

The textile sector was the third largest source of water degradation and land use in 2020. In that year, it took on average nine cubic metres of water, 400 square metres of land and 391 kilogrammes (kg) of raw materials to provide clothes and shoes for each EU citizen.

Water pollution
Textile production is estimated to be responsible for about 20% of global clean water pollution from dyeing and finishing products.

Laundering synthetic clothes accounts for 35% of primary microplastics released into the environment. A single laundry load of polyester clothes can discharge 700,000 microplastic fibres that can end up in the food chain.

The majority of microplastics from textiles are released during the first few washes. Fast fashion is based on mass production, low prices and high sales volumes that promotes many first washes.

Washing synthetic products has caused more than 14 million tonnes of microplastics to accumulate on the bottom of the oceans. In addition to this global problem, the pollution generated by garment production has a devastating impact on the health of local people, animals and ecosystems where the factories are located.

Greenhouse gas emissions
The fashion industry is estimated to be responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

According to the European Environment Agency, textile purchases in the EU in 2020 generated about 270 kg of CO2 emissions per person. That means textile products consumed in the EU generated greenhouse gas emissions of 121 million tonnes.

Textile waste in landfills and low recycling rates
The way people get rid of unwanted clothes has also changed, with items being thrown away rather than donated. Less than half of used clothes are collected for reuse or recycling, and only 1% of used clothes are recycled into new clothes, since technologies that would enable clothes to be recycled into virgin fibres are only now starting to emerge.

Between 2000 and 2015, clothing production doubled, while the average use of an item of clothing has decreased.

Europeans use nearly 26 kilos of textiles and discard about 11 kilos of them every year. Used clothes can be exported outside the EU, but are mostly (87%) incinerated or landfilled.

The rise of fast fashion has been crucial in the increase in consumption, driven partly by social media and the industry bringing fashion trends to more consumers at a faster pace than in the past.

The new strategies to tackle this issue include developing new business models for clothing rental, designing products in a way that would make re-use and recycling easier (circular fashion), convincing consumers to buy fewer clothes of better quality (slow fashion) and generally steering consumer behaviour towards more sustainable options.

Work in progress: the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles
As part of the circular economy action plan, the European Commission presented in March 2022 a new strategy to make textiles more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable, tackle fast fashion and stimulate innovation within the sector.

The new strategy includes new ecodesign requirements for textiles, clearer information, a Digital Product Passport and calls companies to take responsibility and act to minimise their carbon and environmental footprints

On 1 June 2023, MEPs set out proposals for tougher EU measures to halt the excessive production and consumption of textiles. Parliament’s report calls for textiles to be produced respecting human, social and labour rights, as well as the environment and animal welfare.

Existing EU measures to tackle textile waste
Under the waste directive approved by the Parliament in 2018, EU countries are obliged to collect textiles separately by 2025. The new Commission strategy also includes measures to, tackle the presence of hazardous chemicals, calls producers have to take responsibility for their products along the value chain, including when they become wasteand help consumers to choose sustainable textiles.

The EU has an EU Ecolabel that producers respecting ecological criteria can apply to items, ensuring a limited use of harmful substances and reduced water and air pollution.

The EU has also introduced some measures to mitigate the impact of textile waste on the environment. Horizon 2020 funds Resyntex, a project using chemical recycling, which could provide a circular economy business model for the textile industry.

A more sustainable model of textile production also has the potential to boost the economy. "Europe finds itself in an unprecedented health and economic crisis, revealing the fragility of our global supply chains," said lead MEP Huitema. "Stimulating new innovative business models will in turn create new economic growth and the job opportunities Europe will need to recover."

The plasma atmosphere is clearly visible in the reactor through the characteristic glow and flashes of light. © Fraunhofer IGB The plasma atmosphere is clearly visible in the reactor through the characteristic glow and flashes of light.
16.05.2023

Wastewater treatment: Plasma against toxic PFAS chemicals

Harmful PFAS chemicals can now be detected in many soils and bodies of water. Removing them using conventional filter techniques is costly and almost infeasible. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB are now successfully implementing a plasma-based technology in the AtWaPlas joint research project. Contaminated water is fed into a combined glass and stainless steel cylinder where it is then treated with ionized gas, i.e. plasma. This reduces the PFAS molecular chains, allowing the toxic substance to be removed at a low cost.

Harmful PFAS chemicals can now be detected in many soils and bodies of water. Removing them using conventional filter techniques is costly and almost infeasible. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB are now successfully implementing a plasma-based technology in the AtWaPlas joint research project. Contaminated water is fed into a combined glass and stainless steel cylinder where it is then treated with ionized gas, i.e. plasma. This reduces the PFAS molecular chains, allowing the toxic substance to be removed at a low cost.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have many special properties. As they are thermally and chemically stable as well as resistant to water, grease and dirt, they can be found in a large number of everyday products: Pizza boxes and baking paper are coated with them, for example, and shampoos and creams also contain PFAS. In industry they serve as extinguishing and wetting agents, and in agriculture they are used in plant protection products. However, traces of PFAS are now also being detected where they should not be found: in soil, rivers and groundwater, in food and in drinking water. This is how the harmful substances end up in the human body. Due to their chemical stability, eliminating these so-called “forever chemicals” has been almost impossible up to now without considerable effort and expense.

The AtWaPlas joint research project aims to change that. The acronym stands for Atmospheric Water Plasma Treatment. The innovative project is currently being run at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart in cooperation with the industrial partner HYDR.O. Geologen und Ingenieure GbR from Aachen. The aim is to treat and recover PFAS-contaminated water using plasma treatment.

The research team led by Dr. Georg Umlauf, an expert in functional surfaces and materials, utilizes plasma’s ability to attack the molecular chains of substances. The electrically conductive gas consisting of electrons and ions is generated when high voltage is applied. “Our experiments with plasma have been successful in shortening the PFAS molecule chains in water. This is a significant step towards efficiently removing these stubborn pollutants,” Umlauf is happy to report.

Water cycle in a stainless steel cylinder
Fraunhofer researchers are using a cylindrical construction for this plasma process. Inside is a stainless steel tube, which serves as the ground electrode of the electrical circuit. The outer copper mesh then acts as a high-voltage electrode and is protected on the inside by a glass dielectric. A very small gap is left between the two, which is filled with an air mixture. This air mixture is converted into plasma when a voltage of several kilovolts is applied. It is visible to the human eye by its characteristic glow and discharge as flashes of light.

During the purification process, the PFAS-contaminated water is introduced at the bottom of the stainless steel tank and pumped upwards. It then travels down through the gap between the electrodes, passing through the electrically active plasma atmosphere. The plasma breaks up and shortens the PFAS molecule chains as it discharges. The water is repeatedly pumped through both the steel reactor and the plasma discharge zone in a closed circuit, reducing the PFAS molecule chains further each time until they are completely mineralized. “Ideally, the harmful PFAS substances are eliminated to the point that they can no longer be detected in mass spectrometric measurements. This also complies with the strict German Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV) regulations regarding PFAS concentrations,” says Umlauf.

The technology developed at the Fraunhofer Institute has a key advantage over conventional methods such as active carbon filtering: “Active carbon filters can bind the harmful substances, but they are unable to eliminate them. This means that the filters must be replaced and disposed of regularly. The AtWaPlas technology, on the other hand, is capable of completely eliminating the harmful substances without any residue and is very efficient and low-maintenance,” explains Fraunhofer expert Umlauf.

Real water samples instead of synthetic laboratory samples
In order to ensure true feasibility, the Fraunhofer researchers are testing the plasma purification under more challenging conditions. Conventional test methods involve using perfectly clean water and PFAS solutions that have been synthetically mixed in the laboratory. However, the research team in Stuttgart is using “real” water samples that come from PFAS-contaminated areas. The samples are collected by the project partner HYDR.O. Geologen und Ingenieure GbR from Aachen. The company specializes in cleaning up contaminated sites and also carries out hydrodynamic simulations.

The real water samples that Umlauf and his team work with therefore contain PFAS as well as other particles, suspended solids and organic turbidity. “This is how we verify the purification efficiency of AtWaPlas, not only using synthetic laboratory samples, but also under real conditions with changing water qualities. The process parameters can be adapted and further developed at the same time,” explains Umlauf.

This plasma method can also be used to break down other harmful substances, including pharmaceutical residues in wastewater, pesticides and herbicides, but also industrial chemicals such as cyanides. AtWaPlas can also be used to treat drinking water in mobile applications in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way.

The AtWaPlas joint research project launched in JuIy 2021. After a successful series of pilot-scale tests with a 5 liter reactor, the Fraunhofer team is now working with the joint research partner to further optimize the process. Georg Umlauf states: “Our current objective is to completely eliminate toxic PFAS by extending process times and increasing the number of circulations in the tank. We also want to make the AtWaPlas technology available for practical application on a larger scale.” The future could see corresponding plants set up as standalone purification stages in sewage treatment plants or used in portable containers on contaminated open-air sites.

Source:

Fraunhofer-Institut für Grenzflächen- und Bioverfahrenstechnik IGB

A cotton knit fabric dyed blue and washed 10 times to simulate worn garments is enzymatically degraded to a slurry of fine fibers and "blue glucose" syrup that are separated by filtration - both of these separated fractions have potential recycle value. A cotton knit fabric dyed blue and washed 10 times to simulate worn garments is enzymatically degraded to a slurry of fine fibers and "blue glucose" syrup that are separated by filtration - both of these separated fractions have potential recycle value. Credit: Sonja Salmon.
11.04.2023

Researchers Separate Cotton from Polyester in Blended Fabric

In a new study, North Carolina State University researchers found they could separate blended cotton and polyester fabric using enzymes – nature’s tools for speeding chemical reactions. Ultimately, they hope their findings will lead to a more efficient way to recycle the fabric’s component materials, thereby reducing textile waste. However, they also found the process need more steps if the blended fabric was dyed or treated with chemicals that increase wrinkle resistance.

In a new study, North Carolina State University researchers found they could separate blended cotton and polyester fabric using enzymes – nature’s tools for speeding chemical reactions. Ultimately, they hope their findings will lead to a more efficient way to recycle the fabric’s component materials, thereby reducing textile waste. However, they also found the process need more steps if the blended fabric was dyed or treated with chemicals that increase wrinkle resistance.

“We can separate all of the cotton out of a cotton-polyester blend, meaning now we have clean polyester that can be recycled,” said the study’s corresponding author Sonja Salmon, associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State. “In a landfill, the polyester is not going to degrade, and the cotton might take several months or more to break down. Using our method, we can separate the cotton from polyester in less than 48 hours.”
 
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, consumers throw approximately 11 million tons of textile waste into U.S. landfills each year. Researchers wanted to develop a method of separating the cotton from the polyester so each component material could be recycled.

In the study, researchers used a “cocktail” of enzymes in a mildly acidic solution to chop up cellulose in cotton. Cellulose is the material that gives structure to plants’ cell walls. The idea is to chop up the cellulose so it will “fall out” out of the blended woven structure, leaving some tiny cotton fiber fragments remaining, along with glucose. Glucose is the biodegradable byproduct of degraded cellulose. Then, their process involves washing away the glucose and filtering out the cotton fiber fragments, leaving clean polyester.
 
“This is a mild process – the treatment is slightly acidic, like using vinegar,” Salmon said. “We also ran it at 50 degrees Celsius, which is like the temperature of a hot washing machine.
“It’s quite promising that we can separate the polyester to a clean level,” Salmon added. “We still have some more work to do to characterize the polyester’s properties, but we think they will be very good because the conditions are so mild. We’re just adding enzymes that ignore the polyester.”

They compared degradation of 100% cotton fabric to degradation of cotton and polyester blends, and also tested fabric that was dyed with red and blue reactive dyes and treated with durable press chemicals. In order to break down the dyed materials, the researchers had to increase the amount of time and enzymes used. For fabrics treated with durable press chemicals, they had to use a chemical pre-treatment before adding the enzymes.

“The dye that you choose has a big impact on the potential degradation of the fabric,” said the study’s lead author Jeannie Egan, a graduate student at NC State. “Also, we found the biggest obstacle so far is the wrinkle-resistant finish. The chemistry behind that creates a significant block for the enzyme to access the cellulose. Without pre-treating it, we achieved less than 10% degradation, but after, with two enzyme doses, we were able to fully degrade it, which was a really exciting result.”

Researchers said the polyester could be recycled, while the slurry of cotton fragments could be valuable as an additive for paper or useful addition to composite materials. They’re also investigating whether the glucose could be used to make biofuels.

“The slurry is made of residual cotton fragments that resist a very powerful enzymatic degradation,” Salmon said. “It has potential value as a strengthening agent. For the glucose syrup, we’re collaborating on a project to see if we can feed it into an anaerobic digester to make biofuel. We’d be taking waste and turning it into bioenergy, which would be much better than throwing it into a landfill.”

The study, “Enzymatic textile fiber separation for sustainable waste processing,” was published in Resources, Environment and Sustainability. Co-authors included Siyan Wang, Jialong Shen, Oliver Baars and Geoffrey Moxley. Funding was provided by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation, Kaneka Corporation and the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science at NC State.

Source:

North Carolina State University, Laura Oleniacz

(c) nova-Institut GmbH
14.03.2023

Bacteria instead of trees, textile and agricultural waste

For the third time, the nova-Institut awarded the "Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year" prize at the "Cellulose Fibres Conference 2023" in Cologne, 8-9 March 2023.

The yearly conference is a unique meeting point of the global cellulose fibres industry. 42 speakers from twelve countries highlighted the innovation potential of cellulosic fibres and presented the latest market insights and trends to more than 220 participants from 30 countries.

Leading international experts introduced new technologies for recycling of cellulose rich raw materials and practices for circular economy in textiles, packing and hygiene, which were discussed in seven panel discussion with active audience participation.    

Prior to the conference, the conference advisory board had nominated six remarkable innovations. The winners were elected in an exciting head-to-head live-voting by the conference audience on the first day of the event.

For the third time, the nova-Institut awarded the "Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year" prize at the "Cellulose Fibres Conference 2023" in Cologne, 8-9 March 2023.

The yearly conference is a unique meeting point of the global cellulose fibres industry. 42 speakers from twelve countries highlighted the innovation potential of cellulosic fibres and presented the latest market insights and trends to more than 220 participants from 30 countries.

Leading international experts introduced new technologies for recycling of cellulose rich raw materials and practices for circular economy in textiles, packing and hygiene, which were discussed in seven panel discussion with active audience participation.    

Prior to the conference, the conference advisory board had nominated six remarkable innovations. The winners were elected in an exciting head-to-head live-voting by the conference audience on the first day of the event.

The collaboration between Nanollose (AU) and Birla Cellulose (IN) with tree-free lyocell from bacterial cellulose called Nullarbor™ is the winning cellulose fibre innovation 2023, followed by Renewcell (SE) cellulose fibres made from 100 % textile waste, while Vybrana – the new generation banana fibre from Gencrest Bio Products (IN) won third place.
    
Winner: Nullarbor™ – Nanollose and Birla Cellulose (AU/IN)
In 2020, Nanollose and Birla Cellulose started a journey to develop and commercialize treefree lyocell from bacterial cellulose, called Nullarbor™. The name derives from the Latin “nulla arbor” which means “no trees”. Initial lab research at both ends led to the joint patent application “production of high-tenacity lyocell fibres made from bacterial cellulose”.
Nullarbor is significantly stronger than lyocell made from wood-based pulp; even adding small amounts of bacterial cellulose to wood pulp increases the fibre toughness. In 2022, the first pilot batch of 260 kg was produced with 20 % bacterial pulp share. Several high-quality fabrics and garments were produced with this fibre. The collaboration between Nanollose and Birla Cellulose now focuses on increasing the production scale and amount of bacterial pulp in the fibre.  

Second place: Circulose® – makes fashion circular – Renewcell (SE)
Circulose® made by Renewcell is a branded dissolving pulp made from 100 % textile waste, like worn-out clothes and production scraps. It provides a unique material for fashion that is 100 % recycled, recyclable, biodegradable, and of virgin-equivalent quality. It is used by fibre producers to make staple fibre or filaments like viscose, lyocell, modal, acetate or other types of man-made cellulosic fibres. In 2022, Renewcell, opened the world’s first textile-to-textile     
chemical recycling plant in Sundsvall, Sweden – Renewcell 1. The plant is expected to reach an annual capacity of 120,000 tonnes.

Third place: Vybrana – The new generation banana fibre – Gencrest Bio Products (IN)
Vybrana is a Gencrest’s Sustainable Cellulosic Fibre upcycled from agrowaste. Raw fibres are extracted from the banana stem at the end of the plant lifecycle. The biomass waste is then treated by the Gencrest patented Fiberzyme technology. Here, cocktail enzyme formulations remove the high lignin content and other impurities and help fibre fibrillation. The company's proprietary cottonisation process provides fine, spinnable cellulose staple fibres suitable for blending with other staple fibres and can be spun on any conventional spinning systems giving yarns sustainable apparel. Vybrana is produced without the use of heavy chemicals and minimized water consumption and in a waste-free process where balance biomass is converted to bio stimulants Agrosatva and bio-based fertilizers and organic manure.

Vadim Zharkov: https://youtu.be/x9gCrhIPaPM
28.02.2023

‘Smart’ Coating Could Make Fabrics into Protective Gear

Precisely applied metal-organic technology detects and captures toxic gases in air.

A durable copper-based coating developed by Dartmouth researchers can be precisely integrated into fabric to create responsive and reusable materials such as protective equipment, environmental sensors, and smart filters, according to a recent study.
 
The coating responds to the presence of toxic gases in the air by converting them into less toxic substances that become trapped in the fabric, the team reports in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Precisely applied metal-organic technology detects and captures toxic gases in air.

A durable copper-based coating developed by Dartmouth researchers can be precisely integrated into fabric to create responsive and reusable materials such as protective equipment, environmental sensors, and smart filters, according to a recent study.
 
The coating responds to the presence of toxic gases in the air by converting them into less toxic substances that become trapped in the fabric, the team reports in Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The findings hinge on a conductive metal-organic technology, or framework, developed in the laboratory of corresponding author Katherine Mirica, an associate professor of chemistry. First reported in JACS in 2017, the framework was a simple coating that could be layered onto cotton and polyester to create smart fabrics the researchers named SOFT—Self-Organized Framework on Textiles. Their paper demonstrated that SOFT smart fabrics could detect and capture toxic substances in the surrounding environment.

For the newest study, the researchers found that—instead of the simple coating reported in 2017—they can precisely embed the framework into fabrics using a copper precursor that allows them to create specific patterns and more effectively fill in the tiny gaps and holes between threads.

The researchers found that the framework technology effectively converted the toxin nitric oxide into nitrite and nitrate, and transformed the poisonous, flammable gas hydrogen sulfide into copper sulfide. They also report that the framework’s ability to capture and convert toxic materials withstood wear and tear, as well as standard washing.
 
The versatility and durability the new method provides would allow the framework to be applied for specific uses and in more precise locations, such as a sensor on protective clothing, or as a filter in a particular environment, Mirica said.

“This new method of deposition means that the electronic textiles could potentially interface with a broader range of systems because they’re so robust,” she said. “This technological advance paves the way for other applications of the framework’s combined filtration and sensing abilities that could be valuable in biomedical settings and environmental remediation.”
The technique also could eventually be a low-cost alternative to technologies that are cost prohibitive and limited in where they can be deployed by needing an energy source, or—such as catalytic converters in automobiles—rare metals, Mirica said.
 
“Here we’re relying on an Earth-abundant matter to detoxify toxic chemicals, and we’re doing it without any input of outside energy, so we don’t need high temperature or electric current to achieve that function,” Mirica said.

Co-first author Michael Ko, initially observed the new process in 2018 as he attempted to deposit the metal-organic framework onto thin-film copper-based electrodes, Mirica said. But the copper electrodes would be replaced by the framework.

“He wanted it on top of the electrodes, not to replace them,” Mirica said. “It took us four years to figure out what was happening and how it was beneficial. It’s a very straightforward process, but the chemistry behind it is not and it took us some time and additional involvement of students and collaborators to understand that.”

The team discovered that the metal-organic framework “grows” over copper, replacing it with a material with the ability to filter and convert toxic gases, Mirica said. Ko and co-author Lukasz Mendecki, a postdoctoral scholar in the Mirica Group from 2017-18, investigated methods for applying the framework material to fabric in specific designs and patterns.

Co-first author Aileen Eagleton, who is also in the Mirica Group, finalized the technique by optimizing the process for imprinting the metal-organic framework onto fabric, as well as identifying how its structure and properties are influenced by chemical exposure and reaction conditions.

Future work will focus on developing new multifunctional framework materials and scaling up the process of embedding the metal-organic coatings into fabric, Mirica said.

Source:

Dartmouth / Textination

04.01.2023

Circular Economy: It could all be so simple... or not

Interview with Henning Wehland & Robert Kapferer, Circularity Germany

Interview with Henning Wehland & Robert Kapferer, Circularity Germany

I'm a very curious guy by nature. That's why I offered to help out at a well-known hot dog station in Münster (Germany) this year, to draw attention to the shortage of staff in the gastronomy. I wrote an article about it on LinkedIn, which was in turn reacted to by Ines Chucholowius.
From her profile, I could see that she is a consultant for strategic marketing and communication in the textile industry. Not entirely serious, she offered me a job in her office. Like pushing a button, the pictures in my mind set in: Textile industry, exciting! Merchandising, contacts in the industry, collaborations, and I agreed to a short chat, at the end of which we spoke on the phone and arranged to meet.
 
She told me about her website TEXTINATION.de. And we were already involved in an exciting, heated exchange about perception and truth in the textile industry. Without further ado, we left it at that and I went home with a chunk of new information about an exciting field. Our dialogue on social media continued and eventually Ines offered me the chance to feed my die-hard curiosity with the support of TEXTINATION.de. I could write a blog on the site, about people, products, service providers, producers, startups or trends that interest me, to add to my half-knowledge about the textile industry.

Textile waste into the front ... new T-shirt out the back
During this exchange and a long brainstorming session, certain terms kept tickling my attention:
Circular economy, recycling, recyclable material loops. Circular Economy, Recycling, Recyclables. Even though there are many different definitions and some even distinguishing between different aspects: the former thought from waste that flows back into production as a secondary raw material, a more modern approach avoiding waste already in production - the general consensus is really only that circular economy is a cycle in which waste is used as a source for something new.

Sounds like useful additions for all areas of the manufacturing real economy to me. Ines introduced me to Robert Kapferer: He runs a startup called Circularity Germany in Hamburg. His company, founded in 2021 and consisting of Robert and another partner, is an offshoot of the Dutch-based company Circularity B.V. Its founder Han Hamers, with a degree in child psychology and a professional background in the textile dyeing industry, had the idea five years ago for a production facility that spins new yarn exclusively from textile production waste and old textiles turning it into T-shirts, polo shirts and sweatshirts.
Whether this works, and if so, how, is what I wanted to find out, and Ines and I arranged to meet Robert for a 90-minute online conference.

Robert, originally an industrial engineer, comes from a less sustainable industry. He worked for 11 years as managing director for AVECO Material und Service GmbH, where he was responsible for the workwear of more than 50,000 employees.

At the beginning of our conversation, he emphasizes that a moment in January 2021 changed his life and from then on, he wanted to dedicate himself to the topic of circular economy with all his might. That was when he met Han Hamers, who inspired him to found Circularity Germany. His enthusiasm and passion for the subject sound credible, and he begins to describe the differences between chemical and mechanical recycling methods. In summary, the mechanical process of shredding and the subsequent spinning shortens the fibers and thus restricts their properties for further processing. The advantage lies primarily in the comparatively uncomplicated, fast and more cost-efficient process. In the chemical variant, chemical waste remains, but the processed materials are broken down again into their basic building blocks in such a way that they have almost all the same properties as a so-called virgin raw material. Circularity Germany stands for the mechanical process.

And then comes the sentence that gets all our attention: "We've advanced a spinning technology so much that it relies exclusively on waste-based raw materials."
This sentence almost doesn't stand out because Robert still talks - quite excitingly - about the fact that they are planning a production and manufacturing facility where everything from knitting yarn to relatively fine thread can be spun and then further processed into fabric. And here Ines and I ask intensively: Essential requirements for industrial production still seem to be unresolved, and necessary processes are still in the planning stage. For example, the question of whether to work with pre-consumer or post-consumer waste. Pre-consumer waste is cutting waste from the production of clothes, which corresponds to about 10% of the processed material. Post-consumer waste we know as used textiles.

As long as production still takes place in India, Circularity currently uses mainly pre-consumer waste. These come exclusively from sewing factories in the Tirupur region in the south of India. When using used textiles, which exist in large quantities in Germany (according to a study, 28-40% of all garments produced are thrown away unworn), Circularity produces blended yarns of cotton and polyester. The company does not offer pure cotton yarns.

Textiles are treated with chemicals to varying degrees - workwear in particular cannot do without them. The fact that Han Hemers is also collecting used textile stocks from the Dutch army in order to reintroduce them renewed into the consumer cycle is therefore not reassuring. Military clothing has to be finished with all kinds of additives.

Therefor I ask how he can dispel doubts in a consumer’s mind like mine, with a healthy half-knowledge of mask deals and greenwashing, that a well-intentioned vision will be followed by a dark awakening. This concern cannot yet be resolved after the conversation.

We limit ourselves to what is planned: Robert has the dream of reversing the globalized process of textile production. He wants to end the decoupling of cotton growing regions and far-flung production such as Asia with subsequent shipping of ready-made goods to Europe. In the future, existing used textiles and/or cutting wastes are to be collected on site, recycled and processed locally into new textiles.

I believe him in having this dream. However, some of my questions about sustainability remain unanswered - which is why I have my doubts about whether the idea is currently capable of performing and competing.
What are the reasons for this? For one thing, I think it's always difficult to do necessary pioneering work. Especially when listening to smart comments at the regulars' table that large companies are already working intensively on the principle of circular economy. But sometimes, apart from the term "circular economy" and a vague commitment to it, not much remains.

Circularity Germany is committed to developing a technology based exclusively on waste. The interview points out that this also includes making production more environmentally friendly and eliminating transport routes, which further reduces the burden on the environment. When all the requirements for realizing this dream have been met and a product that is competitive in terms of both quality and price can be launched on the market, it is up to the consumer to decide. Here one would have the credible argument of sustainability and a socially and environmentally fair process. Circularity would then not have to worry about PR.

It needs to be given time and, above all, attention. But perhaps the industry should get involved right here and now, and invest in startups like this and make sure that problems are cleared out of the way. Because one thing has become clear to us in this conversation:

It could all be so simple. Circular economy is achievable, but the road there is still costly and rocky. That's why we wish Robert and his team every success and, above all, perseverance. Thank you for the interview.

Short and sweet: the profile of the company in the attached factsheet for download.

 

 

Photo: Bcomp
22.11.2022

Made in Switzerland: Is Flax the New Carbon?

  • Bcomp wins BMW Group Supplier Innovation Award in the category “Newcomer of the Year”

The sixth BMW Group Supplier Innovation Awards were presented at the BMW Welt in Munich on 17 November 2022. The coveted award was presented in a total of six categories: powertrain & e-mobility, sustainability, digitalisation, customer experience, newcomer of the year and exceptional team performance.

Bcomp won the BMW Group Supplier Innovation Award in the Newcomer of the Year category. Following a successful collaboration with BMW M Motorsport for the new BMW M4 GT4 that extensively uses Bcomp’s powerRibs™ and ampliTex™ natural fibre solutions and BMW iVentures recently taking a stake in Bcomp as lead investor in the Series B round, this award is another major step and recognition on the path to decarbonizing mobility.

  • Bcomp wins BMW Group Supplier Innovation Award in the category “Newcomer of the Year”

The sixth BMW Group Supplier Innovation Awards were presented at the BMW Welt in Munich on 17 November 2022. The coveted award was presented in a total of six categories: powertrain & e-mobility, sustainability, digitalisation, customer experience, newcomer of the year and exceptional team performance.

Bcomp won the BMW Group Supplier Innovation Award in the Newcomer of the Year category. Following a successful collaboration with BMW M Motorsport for the new BMW M4 GT4 that extensively uses Bcomp’s powerRibs™ and ampliTex™ natural fibre solutions and BMW iVentures recently taking a stake in Bcomp as lead investor in the Series B round, this award is another major step and recognition on the path to decarbonizing mobility.

“Innovations are key to the success of our transformation towards electromobility, digitalisation and sustainability. Our award ceremony recognises innovation and cooperative partnership with our suppliers – especially in challenging times,” said Joachim Post, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Purchasing and Supplier Network at the ceremony held at BMW Welt in Munich.

BMW first started to work with Bcomp’s materials in 2019 when they used high-performance natural fibre composites in the BMW iFE.20 Formula E car. From this flax fibre reinforced cooling shaft, the collaboration evolved and soon after, the proprietary ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ natural fibre solutions were found successfully substituting selected carbon fibre components in DTM touring cars from BMW M Motorsport. By trickling down and expanding into other vehicle programs, such developments highlight the vital role that BMW M Motorsports plays as a technology lab for the entire BMW Group. This continues in the form of the latest collaboration with Bcomp to include a higher proportion of renewable raw materials in the successor of the BMW M4 GT4.

With the launch of the new BMW M4 GT4, it will be the serial GT car with the highest proportion of natural fibre components. Bcomp’s ampliTex™ and powerRibs™ flax fibre solutions can be found throughout the interior on the dashboard and centre console, as well as on bodywork components such as the hood, front splitter, doors, trunk, and rear wing. Aside from the roof, there are almost no carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) components that were not replaced by the renewable high-performance flax materials. “Product sustainability is increasing in importance in the world of motorsport too,” says Franciscus van Meel, Chairman of the Board of Management at BMW M GmbH.

Bcomp is a leading solutions provider for natural fibre reinforcements in high performance applications from race to space.

The company started as a garage project in 2011 with a mission to create lightweight yet high performance skis. The bCores™ were launched and successfully adopted by some of the biggest names in freeride skiing. The founders, material science PhDs from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), used flax fibres to reinforce the balsa cores and improve shear stiffness. Impressed by the excellent mechanical properties of flax fibres, the development to create sustainable lightweighting solutions for the wider mobility markets started.

Flax is an indigenous plant that grows naturally in Europe and has been part of the agricultural history for centuries. It requires very little water and nutrients to grow successfully. In addition, it acts as a rotational crop, thus enhancing harvests on existing farmland. Neither cultivation nor processing of the flax plants requires any chemicals that could contaminate ground water and harvesting is a completely mechanical process. After harvesting the entire flax plant can be used for feed, to make oil and its fibres are especially used for home textiles and clothing. The long fibre that comes from the flax plant possesses very good mechanical properties and outstanding damping properties in relation to its density, making it especially suited as a natural fibre reinforcement for all kinds of polymers.

The harvesting and processing of flax takes place locally in the rural areas it was grown in. Using European flax sourced through a well-established and transparent supply chain it allows to support the economic and social structure in rural areas thanks to the large and skilled workforce required to sustain the flax production. When it comes to the production of technical products like the powerRibs™ reinforcement grid, Bcomp is investing in local production capacities close to its headquarters in the city of Fribourg, Switzerland, thus creating new jobs and maintaining technical know-how in the area. The production is built to be as efficient as possible and with minimal environmental impact and waste.

Further strengthening the local economy, Bcomp aims to hire local companies for missions and with the headquarters being located in Fribourg’s “Blue Factory” district, Bcomp can both benefit from and contribute to the development of this sustainable and diverse quarter.

Source:

Bcomp; BMW Group

Photo: Pixabay
12.04.2022

Disrupted supply chains: Only nearshoring and digital technologies will help in the long term

  • McKinsey survey: Globally, more than 90 percent of supply chain managers are investing in the resilience of their supply chains during the Corona crisis.
  • But more often than not, they are simply increasing inventories instead of focusing on long-term effective measures such as regionalization of suppliers.
  • Only the healthcare industry has consistently relied on nearshoring and regionalization of suppliers so far.

Supply chain managers worldwide are under pressure: More than 90 percent invested during the Corona crisis to make their supply chains more resilient to external disruptions. More often than planned, however, supply chain managers resorted to the ad hoc measure of simply increasing inventories. And less often than planned, they also relied on long-term effects by regionalizing their supply base.

  • McKinsey survey: Globally, more than 90 percent of supply chain managers are investing in the resilience of their supply chains during the Corona crisis.
  • But more often than not, they are simply increasing inventories instead of focusing on long-term effective measures such as regionalization of suppliers.
  • Only the healthcare industry has consistently relied on nearshoring and regionalization of suppliers so far.

Supply chain managers worldwide are under pressure: More than 90 percent invested during the Corona crisis to make their supply chains more resilient to external disruptions. More often than planned, however, supply chain managers resorted to the ad hoc measure of simply increasing inventories. And less often than planned, they also relied on long-term effects by regionalizing their supply base. These are the key findings of a comparative study for which management consultants McKinsey & Company surveyed more than 70 supply chain managers from leading companies worldwide - for the first time in 2020 and again this year. Further results: Digital technologies are used much more frequently today than at the beginning of the pandemic, for example real-time monitoring or analytics based on artificial intelligence (AI).

The survey also quantifies the striking shortage of IT specialists in the area of supply management: in 2021, only one percent of the companies surveyed had enough IT specialists. "In the wake of the digitalization push, the need for IT skills is becoming even more of a bottleneck than it already has been," reports Vera Trautwein, McKinsey expert for supply chain management and co-author of the study. "As a result, the scope for action is also decreasing dramatically." In 2020, ten percent of the supply chain managers surveyed still had access to sufficient experts with the relevant IT know-how in their departments. How did the supply chain managers act during the crisis? Almost all respondents (92 percent) have invested in the resilience of their supply chains, and 80 percent have also invested in digital supply chain technologies. But while 40 percent of the 2020 respondents in McKinsey's first "Supply Chain Pulse" had still planned nearshoring and expanding their supplier base, only 15 percent ultimately put this into action. Instead, significantly more managers than expected - 42 percent versus 27 percent - expanded their inventories.

The 2020/21 comparative study also shows that supply chain managers have acted very differently in the crisis, depending on the industry. Healthcare can be considered a pioneer in the regionalization of the supply chain: 60 percent of the respondents in the industry have actually concentrated procurement, production and sales in a region such as Europe or North America, which they have also announced. In 2020, 33 percent of companies in the automotive, aerospace and defense industries had also announced this. However, according to their own figures, only 22 percent actually did so. This was despite the fact that more than three quarters of supply chain managers had given this measure priority. The chemicals and raw materials sectors made the fewest changes to their supply chains.

After the crisis is before the crisis
Over the years, supply chains have evolved into a high-frequency sensitive organism. Consistently globalized, optimized to fluctuations in consumer demand and with as little inventory as possible to cut costs. "This strategy has left companies vulnerable," notes McKinsey partner Knut Alicke. "And during the crisis, measures were taken that were more effective in the short term." As a result, supply chains are not yet resilient enough to prevent future disruptions. "For companies, nearshoring of suppliers remains a key factor in increasing their crisis resilience in the medium to long term." In addition, however, he said, the expansion and use of digital technologies are the key factors for resilient supply chains.

The pressure to act is great: Massive supply chain disruptions occur on average every 3.7 years and disrupt supply chains for at least one month. This was the conclusion of another McKinsey study on supply chains entitled "Risk, resilience, and rebalancing in global value chains" back in 2020.

Source:

McKinsey & Company [Düsseldorf, Germany]

Nicolas Meletiou, Pixabay
01.03.2022

Textiles and the environment: the role of design in Europe’s circular economy

From the perspective of European consumption, textiles have on average the fourth highest negative life cycle impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing and mobility. A shift to a circular textile production and consumption system with longer use, and more reuse and recycling could reduce those impacts along with reductions in overall consumption. One important measure is circular design of textiles to improve product durability, repairability and recyclability and to ensure the uptake of secondary raw materials in new products.

Key messages

From the perspective of European consumption, textiles have on average the fourth highest negative life cycle impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing and mobility. A shift to a circular textile production and consumption system with longer use, and more reuse and recycling could reduce those impacts along with reductions in overall consumption. One important measure is circular design of textiles to improve product durability, repairability and recyclability and to ensure the uptake of secondary raw materials in new products.

Key messages

  • In 2019, the EU textile and clothing sector had a turnover of EUR162 billion, employing over 1.5 million people across 160,000 companies. As was the case in many sectors, between 2019 and 2020, the COVID-19 crisis decreased turnover by 9% for textiles as a whole and by 17% for clothing.
  • In 2020, textile consumption in Europe had on average the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change from a global life cycle perspective. It was the consumption area with the third highest impact on water and land use, and the fifth highest in terms of raw material use and greenhouse gas emissions.
  • To reduce the environmental impacts of textiles, a shift towards circular business models, including circular design, is crucial. This will need technical, social and business model innovation, as well as behavioural change and policy support.
  • Circular design is an important enabler of the transition towards sustainable production and consumption of textiles through circular business models. The design phase plays a critical role in each of the four pathways to achieving a circular textile sector: longevity and durability; optimised resource use; collection and reuse; and recycling and material use.

Textiles are identified as a key value chain in the EU circular economy action plan and will be addressed in the forthcoming European Commission’s 2022 EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles and EU sustainable products initiative. This briefing aims to improve our understanding of the environmental and climate impacts of textiles from a European perspective and to identify design principles and measures to increase circularity in textiles. It is underpinned by a report from the EEA’s European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use available here.

1. Production, trade and consumption of textiles
Textiles is an important sector for the EU economy. In 2019, the EU textile and clothing sector had a turnover of EUR162 billion, employing over 1.5 million people in 160,000 companies. As was the case for many sectors, between 2019 and 2020, the COVID-19 health and economic crisis decreased turnover by 9% for textiles as a whole and by 17% for clothing (Euratex, 2021).

In 2020, 6.9 million tonnes of finished textile products were produced in the EU-27. EU production specialises in carpets, household textiles and other textiles (including non-woven textiles, technical and industrial textiles, ropes and fabrics). In addition to finished products, the EU produces intermediate products for textiles, such as fibres, yarns and fabrics (Köhler et al., 2021).

The textiles sector is labour intensive compared with others. Almost 13 million full-time equivalent workers were employed worldwide in the supply chain to produce the amount of clothing, textiles and footwear consumed in the EU-27 in 2020. This makes the textiles sector the third largest employer worldwide, after food and housing. Most production takes place in Asia, where low production costs come at the expense of workers’ health and safety.
 
Textiles are highly globalised, with Europe being a significant importer and exporter. In 2020, 8.7 million tonnes of finished textile products, with a value of EUR125 billion, were imported into the EU-27. Clothing accounts for 45% of imports in terms of volume, followed by household textiles, other textiles and footwear (Eurostat, 2021a). The EU imports mainly from China, Bangladesh and Turkey, and exports mainly to the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States (Euratex, 2020).

Consumption
European households consume large amounts of textile products. In 2019, as in 2018, Europeans spent on average EUR600 on clothing, EUR150 on footwear and EUR70 on household textiles (Köhler et al., 2021; Eurostat, 2021b).

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic, involving stay-at-home measures and the closure of companies and shops, decreased textile production and demand overall (Euratex, 2021). As a result, the consumption of clothing and footwear per person decreased in 2020, relative to 2019, while the consumption of household textiles slightly increased. Average textile consumption per person amounted to 6.0kg of clothing, 6.1kg of household textiles and 2.7kg of shoes in 2020 (see Figure 1).

Apart from this COVID-related drop in consumption in 2020, the estimated consumption of clothing and footwear stayed relatively constant over the last decade, with slight fluctuations between years (see Figure 2). Similarly, the consumption of household textiles was also relatively steady, with a slight increase over the decade.

When calculating the ‘estimated consumption’ based on production and trade data from 2020, and excluding industrial/technical textiles and carpets, total textile consumption is 15kg per person per year, consisting of, on average:

  • 6.0kg of clothing
  • 6.1kg of household textiles
  • 2.7kg footwear.

For 2020, this amounts to a total consumption of 6.6 million tonnes of textile products in Europe. Textile consumption estimates are uncertain, as they vary by study, often using different scopes and calculation methods.

2. Environmental and climate impacts of textiles
The production and consumption of textiles has significant impacts on the environment and climate change. Environmental impacts in the production phase result from the cultivation and production of natural fibres such as cotton, hemp and linen (e.g. use of land and water, fertilisers and pesticides) and from the production of synthetic fibres such as polyester and elastane (e.g. energy use, chemical feedstock) (ETC/WMGE, 2021b). Manufacturing textiles requires large amounts of energy and water and uses a variety of chemicals across various production processes. Distribution and retail are responsible for transport emissions and packaging waste.

During use and maintenance — washing, drying and ironing — electricity, water and detergents are used. Chemicals and microfibres are also emitted into the waste water. Meanwhile, textiles contribute to significant amounts of textile waste. At the end of their life, textiles often end up in general waste and are incinerated or landfilled. When textile waste is collected separately, textiles are sorted and reused, recycled or disposed of, depending on their quality and material composition. In 2017, it was estimated that less than 1% of all textiles worldwide are recycled into new products (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017).

To illustrate the magnitude of the impacts of textile consumption on raw material use, water and land use and greenhouse gas emissions compared with other consumption categories, we have updated our calculations of the life cycle environmental and climate impacts in the EU. We used input-output modelling based on data from the Exiobase database and Eurostat. In line with the reduced textile consumption level in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the environmental impacts decreased from 2019 to 2020.

Raw material use
Large amounts of raw materials are used for textile production. To produce all clothing, footwear and household textiles purchased by EU households in 2020, an estimated 175 million tonnes of primary raw materials were used, amounting to 391kg per person. Roughly 40% of this is attributable to clothes, 30% to household textiles and 30% to footwear. This ranks textiles as the fifth highest consumption category in Europe in terms of primary raw material use (see Figure 3).

The raw materials used include all types of materials used in producing natural and synthetic fibres, such as fossil fuels, chemicals and fertilisers. It also includes all building materials, minerals and metals used in the construction of production facilities. Transport and retail of the textile products are included as well. Only 20% of these primary raw materials are produced or extracted in Europe, with the remainder extracted outside Europe. This shows the global nature of the textiles value chain and the high dependency of European consumption on imports. This implies that 80% of environmental impacts generated by Europe’s textile consumption takes place outside Europe. For example, cotton farming, fibre production and garment construction mostly take place in Asia (ETC/WMGE, 2019).

Water use
Producing and handling textiles requires large quantities of water. Water use distinguishes between ‘blue’ water (surface water or groundwater consumed or evaporated during irrigation, industry processes or household use) and ‘green’ water (rain water stored in the soil, typically used to grow crops) (Hoekstra et al., 2012).

To produce all clothing, footwear and household textiles purchased by EU households in 2020, about 4,000 million m³ of blue water were required, amounting to 9m³ per person, ranking textiles’ water consumption in third place, after food and recreation and culture (see Figure 4).

Additionally, about 20,000 million m³ of green water was used, mainly for producing cotton, which amounts to 44m³ per person. Blue water is used fairly equally in producing clothing (40%), footwear (30%) and household and other textiles (30%). Green water is mainly consumed in producing clothing (almost 50%) and household textiles (30%), of which cotton production consumes the most.

Water consumption for textiles consumed in Europe mostly takes place outside Europe. It is estimated that producing 1kg of cotton requires about 10m³ of water, typically outside Europe (Chapagain et al., 2006).

Land use
Producing textiles, in particular natural textiles, requires large amounts of land. The land used in the supply chain of textiles purchased by European households in 2020 is estimated at 180,000 km², or 400m² per person. Only 8% of the land used is in Europe. Over 90% of the land use impact occurs outside Europe, mostly related to (cotton) fibre production in China and India (ETC/WMGE, 2019). Animal-based fibres, such as wool, also have a significant land use impact (Lehmann et al., 2018). This makes textiles the sector with the third highest impact on land use, after food and housing (see Figure 5). Of this, 43% is attributable to clothes, 35% to footwear (including leather shoes, which have a high land use impact because of the need for cattle pasture) and 23% to household and other textiles.

Greenhouse gas emissions
The production and consumption of textiles generate greenhouse gas emissions, in particular from resource extraction, production, washing and drying, and waste incineration. In 2020, producing textile products consumed in the EU generated greenhouse gas emissions of 121 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in total, or 270kg CO2e per person. This makes textiles the household consumption domain responsible for the fifth largest impact on climate change, after housing, food, transport and mobility, and recreation and culture (see Figure 6). Of this, 50% is attributable to clothes, 30% to household and other textiles, and 20% to footwear. While greenhouse gas emissions have a global effect, almost 75% are released outside Europe, mainly in the important textile-producing regions in Asia (ETC/WMGE, 2019).

About 80% of the total climate change impact of textiles occurs in the production phase. A further 3% occurs in distribution and retail, 14% in the use phase (washing, drying and ironing), and 3% during end of life (collection, sorting, recycling, incineration and disposal) (ECOS, 2021; Östlund et al., 2020).

Textiles made from natural fibres, such as cotton, generally have the lowest climate impact. Those made from synthetic fibres (especially nylon and acrylic) generally have a higher climate impact because of their fossil fuel origin and the energy consumed during production (ETC/WMGE, 2021b; Beton et al., 2014).

3. Design as an enabler of circular business models for textiles
To reduce the environmental and climate change impacts of textiles, shifting towards circular business models is crucial to save on raw materials, energy, water and land use, emissions and waste (ETC/WMGE, 2019). Implementing and scaling circular business models requires technical, social and business model innovation; as well as enablers from policy, consumption and education (EEA, 2021).

Circular design is an important component of circular business models for textiles. It can ensure higher quality, longer lifetimes, better use of materials, and better options for reuse and recycling. While it is important to enable the recycling and reuse of materials, life-extending strategies, such as design for durability, ease of reuse, repair and remanufacturing, should be prioritised. Preventing the use of hazardous chemicals and limiting toxic emissions and release of microplastics at all life cycle stages should be incorporated into product design.

Designing for circularity is the most recent development in design for sustainability. Expanding a technical and product-centric focus to a focus on large-scale system-level changes (considering both production and consumption systems) shows that this latest development requires many more disciplines than traditional engineering design. Product design as a component of a circular business model depends on consumer behaviour and policy to realise its potential and enable implementation. Figure 7 shows the linkages between the circular business model, product design, consumer behaviour and policy. All are needed to slow down and close the loop, making it circular.

Photo: pixabay, Hilary Clark
01.02.2022

Cotton Fibers 2.0: Fireproof and comfortable

A new chemical process developed by Empa turns cotton into a fire-resistant fabric, that nevertheless retains the skin-friendly properties of cotton.

Conventional flame retardant cotton textiles suffer from release of formaldehyde and are uncomfortable to wear. Empa scientists managed to circumvent this problem by creating a physically and chemically independent network of flame retardants inside the fibers. This approach retains the inherently positive properties of cotton fibers, which account for three-quarters of the world's demand for natural fibers in clothing and home textiles. Cotton is skin-friendly because it can absorb considerable amounts of water and maintain a favorable microclimate on the skin.

A new chemical process developed by Empa turns cotton into a fire-resistant fabric, that nevertheless retains the skin-friendly properties of cotton.

Conventional flame retardant cotton textiles suffer from release of formaldehyde and are uncomfortable to wear. Empa scientists managed to circumvent this problem by creating a physically and chemically independent network of flame retardants inside the fibers. This approach retains the inherently positive properties of cotton fibers, which account for three-quarters of the world's demand for natural fibers in clothing and home textiles. Cotton is skin-friendly because it can absorb considerable amounts of water and maintain a favorable microclimate on the skin.

For firefighters and other emergency service personnel, protective clothing provides the most important barrier. For such purposes, cotton is mainly used as an inner textile layer that needs additional properties: For example, it must be fireproof or protect against biological contaminants. Nevertheless, it should not be hydrophobic, which would create an uncomfortable microclimate. These additional properties can be built into the cotton fibers by suitable chemical modifications.

Durability vs. toxicity
"Until now, it has always taken a compromise to make cotton fireproof," says Sabyasachi Gaan, a chemist and polymer expert who works at Empa's Advanced Fibers lab. Wash-durable flame retardant cotton in industry is produced by treating the fabric with flame retardants, which chemically links to the cellulose in the cotton. Currently, the textile industry has no other choice than to utilize formaldehyde-based chemicals – and formaldehyde is classified as a carcinogen. This has been an unsolved problem for decades. While formaldehyde-based flame retardant treatments are durable, they have additional drawbacks: The -OH groups of cellulose are chemically blocked, which considerably reduces the capability of cotton to absorb water, which results in an uncomfortable textile.

Gaan knows the chemistry of cotton fibers well and has spent many years at Empa developing flame retardants based on phosphorus chemistry that are already used in many industrial applications. Now he has succeeded in finding an elegant and easy way to anchor phosphorous in form of an independent network inside the cotton.

Independent network between cotton fibers
Gaan and his colleagues Rashid Nazir, Dambarudhar Parida and Joel Borgstädt utilized a tri-functional phosphorous compound (trivinylphosphine oxide), which has the capability of reacting only with specifically added molecules (nitrogen compounds like piperazin) to form its own network inside cotton. This makes the cotton permanently fire-resistant without blocking the favorable -OH groups. In addition, the physical phosphine oxide network also likes water. This flame retardant treatment does not include carcinogenic formaldehyde, which would endanger textile workers during textile manufacturing. The phosphine oxide networks, thus formed, does not wash out: After 50 launderings, 95 percent of the flame retardant network is still present in the fabric.

To render additional protective functionalities to the flame retardant cotton developed at Empa, the researchers also incorporated in situ generated silver nanoparticles inside the fabric. This works nicely in a one-step process together with generating the phosphine oxide networks. Silver nanoparticles provide the fiber with antimicrobial properties and survive 50 laundry cycles, too.

A high-tech solution from the pressure cooker
"We have used a simple approach to fix the phosphine oxide networks inside the cellulose," Gaan says. "For our lab experiments, we first treated the cotton with an aqueous solution of phosphorus and nitrogen compounds and then steamed it in a readily available pressure cooker to facilitate the crosslinking reaction of the phosphorus and the nitrogen molecules." The application process is compatible with equipment used in the textile industry. "Steaming textiles after dyeing, printing and finishing is a normal step in textile industry. So it doesn't require an additional investment to apply our process," states the Empa chemist.

Meanwhile, this newly developed phosphorus chemistry and its application is protected by a patent application. "Two important hurdles remain," Gaan says. "For future commercialization we need to find a suitable chemical manufacturer who can produce and supply trivinylphosphine oxide. In addition, trivinylphosphine oxide has to be REACH-registered in Europe."

Contact:
Dr. Sabyasachi Gaan
Advanced Fibers
Phone: +41 58 765 7611
sabyasachi.gaan@empa.ch
 
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Manfred Heuberger
Advanced Fibers
Phone: +41 58 765 7878
manfred.heuberger@empa.ch

A gel that releases drugs
The novel phosphorus chemistry can also be used to develop other materials, e.g. to make hydrogels that can release drugs upon changes in pH. Such gels could find application in treating wounds that heal slowly. In such wounds, the pH of the skin surface increases and the new phosphorus-based gels can be triggered to release medication or a dye that alerts doctors and nurses to the problem. Empa has also patented the production of such hydrogels.

Source:

EMPA, Rainer Klose

(c) nova-Institut GmbH
07.12.2021

Finalists for „Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year 2022” announced

Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year 2022: Cellulose Fibre Solutions are expanding from hygiene and textiles as well as non-wovens up to alternatives for carbon fibres for light-weight applications.

Great submissions made the nomination for the Innovation Award difficult. All of them present promising sustainable solutions in the field of cellulose fibres value chain. Six of them now get the chance to demonstrate their potential to a wide audience in Cologne (Germany), and online.

Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year 2022: Cellulose Fibre Solutions are expanding from hygiene and textiles as well as non-wovens up to alternatives for carbon fibres for light-weight applications.

Great submissions made the nomination for the Innovation Award difficult. All of them present promising sustainable solutions in the field of cellulose fibres value chain. Six of them now get the chance to demonstrate their potential to a wide audience in Cologne (Germany), and online.

For the second time, nova-Institute grants the “Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year” within the framework of the “International Conference on Cellulose Fibres 2022” (2-3 February 2022). The advisory board of the conference nominated six  products, ranging from cellulose made of orange- and wood pulp to a novel technology for cellulose fibre production. The presentations, election of the winner by the conference audience and the award ceremony will take place on the first day of the conference.

Cellulose fibres show an increasingly expanding wide range of applications, while at the same time markets are driven by technological developments and political framework conditions, especially bans and restrictions on plastics and increasing sustainability requirements. The conference provides rich information on opportunities for cellulose fibres through policy assessment, a session on sustainability, recycling and alternative feedstocks as well as latest development in pulp, cellulose fibres and yarns. This includes application such as non-wovens, packaging and composites.

Here are the nominees:
Carbon Fibres from Wood – German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (Germany)
The HighPerCellCarbon® technology is a sustainable and alternative process for the production of carbon fibres made from wood. The technology starts with wet spinning of cellulosic fibres using ionic liquids (IL) as direct solvent in an environmentally friendly, closed loop filament spinning process (HighPerCell® technology). These filaments are directly converted into carbon fibres by a low-pressure stabilisation process, followed by a suitable carbonisation process. No exhaust fumes or toxic by-products are formed during the whole process. Furthermore, the approach allows a complete recycling of solvent and precursor fibres, creating a unique and environmentally friendly process. Carbon fibres are used in many lightweight applications and the fibres are a sustainable alternative to fossil-based ones.

Fibers365, Truly Carbon-Negative Virgin Fibres from Straw – Fibers365 (Germany)
Fibers365 are the first carbon-negative virgin straw fibres on the market. The Fibers365 concept is based on a unique, state of the art process to provide functional, carbon negative, and competitive non-wood biomass products such as virgin fibres for paper, packaging and textile purposes as well as high value process energy, biopolymer and fertilizer side streams. The products are extracted from the stems of annual food plants such as straw by a chemical-free, regional, farm level steam explosion pulping technology, allowing an easy separation of the fibres from sugars, lignin, organic acid and minerals. In the case of annual plants, CO2 emissions are recaptured within 12 months from their production date, offering “instant”, yearly compensation of corresponding emissions.

Iroony® Hemp and Flax Cellulose – RBX Créations (France)
Iroony® is a branded cellulose made by RBX Créations from hemp. This resistant hemp plant grows quickly within in a few months, massively captures carbon and displays a high content of cellulose. The biomass is directly collected from French farmers who cultivate without chemicals or irrigation, in extended rotation cycles, contributing to soil regeneration and biodiversity. For a diversified supply, the hemp can be combined with organically-grown flax. Through its patented process, RBX Créations extracts high-purity cellulose, perfectly suitable for spinning technologies such as HighPerCell® of DITF research centre. The resulting fibres display versatile properties of fineness, tenacity and stretch, for applications like clothing or technical textiles. Iroony® combines low impact, trackability and performance.

SPINNOVA, Sustainable Textile Fibre without Harmful Chemicals – Spinnova (Finland)
Spinnova’s innovative technology enables production of sustainable textile fibres in a mechanical process, without dissolving or any harmful chemicals. The process involves use of paper-grade pulp and mechanical refining to turn pulp into microfibrillated cellulose (MFC). The fibre suspension consisting of MFC is extruded to form textile fibre, without regeneration processes. The Spinnova process does not generate any side waste, and the environmental footprint of SPINNOVA® including 65 % less CO2 emissions and 99 % less water compared to cotton production. Spinnova’s solution is also scalable: Spinnova targets to reach 1 million tonnes annual production capacity in the next 10 to 12 years.    

Sustainable Menstruation Panties: Application-driven Fibre Functionalisation – Kelheim Fibres (Germany)
Kelheim’s plant-based and biodegradable fibres contribute significantly to a sustainable future in the field of reusable hygiene textiles. Through innovative functionalisation they are specifically adjusted to the requirements of the single layers and thereby reach a performance comparable to that of synthetic fibres. A unique duality in fibre technology is created: sustainably manufactured cellulosic fibres that allow for high wearing comfort and reusability with extraordinary, durable performance. Fibre concepts comprise Celliant® Viscose, an in-fibre infrared solution and Danufil® Fibres in the top sheet, Galaxy, a trilobal fibre for the ADL, Bramante, a hollow viscose fibre, in the absorbing core and a water repellent woven fabric, a biodegradable PLA film or a sustainable coating as a back sheet.

TENCEL™ branded Lyocell Fibre made of Orange and Wood Pulp – Orange Fiber (Italy)
Orange Fiber is the world's first company to produce a sustainable textile fibre from a patented process for the extraction of cellulose to be spun from citrus juice leftovers, which are more than 1 million tonnes a year just in Italy. The result of our partnership with Lenzing Group, leading global producer of wood-based specialty fibres, is the first ever TENCEL™ branded lyocell fibre made of orange and wood pulp. A novel cellulosic fibre to further inspire sustainability across the value chain and push the boundaries of innovation. This fibre, part of the TENCEL™ Limited Edition initiative, is characterized by soft appeal and high moisture absorbance and has already obtained the OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certificate and is undergoing a diverse set of other sustainability assessments.