From the Sector

The partnership will aim at eliminating hazardous Potassium Permanganate Spray and most manual processes in denim finishing, while reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions, water and chemical use in the process

Hong Kong based Epic Group, a leading garment manufacturer for global brands today announced its strategic partnership with CleanKore, a denim innovation and patent licensing company. This partnership aims at scaling the CleanKore patented yarn dyeing technology that provides numerous sustainability benefits for both the denim mill and garment manufacturer.

CleanKore patented technology changes the chemistry and the process used to dyeing yarns at the denim mills by keeping intact the white core of the yarn and only dyeing the surface. This technology significantly reduces water, chemicals and process time in the denim garment finishing stage.

Denim garment finishing often involves onerous manual processes such as handsanding and hand whiskering, spraying of harmful Potassium Permanganate (PP) (done by heavily protective equipment donned personnel), and multiple washing cycles. CleanKore technology coupled with lasers enable elimination of the PP spray process, significantly improving health and wellbeing of apparel workers, as well as emissions of harmful chemicals. Manual processes are eliminated in most styles and significantly reduced in others.

CleanKore technology also enables the reduction of wash cycles – reducing water, chemical use and process time, adding to the sustainability credentials of the end products. The products currently tested by Epic Group and CleanKore demonstrate up to 44% of water savings in garment finishing and up to 60% of energy savings in the fabric dyeing stage, along with the elimination of PP spray.

Through their partnership, Epic Group and CleanKore are planning to rapidly scale up the adoption of this technology in partnership with Epic Group’s customer base. In the first year, the partnership plans to reach over 4 million pairs of denim and working towards a scale of 15 - 20 million pairs of denim per annum in the next 3 years, converting a large portion of Epic Group’s denim production to CleanKore technology.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) announced that construction of an integrated PTA-PET plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, will resume in August this year. Corpus Christi Polymers LLC (CCP), a partnership between three companies, is expected to begin production in 2025 and ensure continued cost-competitive production to support the growth of IVL’s global PET operations into the next decade.

CCP was formed in 2018 as a joint venture between Indorama Ventures Corpus Christi Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Indorama Ventures; DAK Americas LLC, a subsidiary of Alpek S.A.B. de C.V.; and APG Polytech USA Holdings, Inc, a subsidiary of Far Eastern New Century, following the purchase of a partially constructed facility of M&G Resins in Corpus Christi. Each partner will procure its own raw materials and receive one third of the PTA and PET produced at the facility to sell and distribute independently.

Construction of the plant is resuming following a period of pandemic-related disruptions. Through the pandemic, the partners firmly resolved to continue planning amid continued robust demand for PET packaging and the need for shorter supply chains. As the impact of the pandemic eased in 2022, the management team was strengthened in preparation for the resumption in activities.

CCP is expected to be the largest vertically integrated PTA-PET production plant in the Americas, and IVL’s biggest greenfields project in the U.S. since the development of the AlphaPet production facility at Decatur, Alabama in 2009. The new Texas facility is a significant addition to IVL’s leading global footprint, and will expand its coverage to customers across the U.S. The plant’s vertical integration optimizes PTA-PET production and, together with the availability of raw materials Paraxylene and Mono Ethylene Glycol in the U.S., ensures long-term competitive-cost supply for IVL’s locally integrated polyester value chain.

The facility will have nominal annual capacities of 1.1 million metric tons of PET and 1.3 million metric tons of PTA, shared between the partners. It will employ three state-of-the-art technologies: PTA: IntegRex®, PET melt: Invista, and PET solid state: Easy Up (HCIRR – Horizontal Continuous slightly Inclined Rotary Reactor).

CCP is adding to its leadership team to prepare for the new growth opportunities. Mr Russell Wilson will leave his role with IVL as Head of Manufacturing Americas, Combined PET, to take up a new role as Chief Executive Officer of CCP from 18 July. He brings 30 years of Aromatics and PET leadership experience including prior roles with Amoco and BP before joining IVL. Mr Todd Hogue, IVL’s Global Head of EH&S, replaces Mr Wilson as IVL’s representative on CCP’s Board. Mr Michael Day joined CCP as Project Director in June and brings 34 years of construction leadership experience including senior roles with Bilfinger, KBR, and CB&I.  Mr Jeff Shea will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer on 18 July.  Mr Shea has been in the PET industry for the last 22 years and has managed PET sites for the last 17. 

• Sustainability Report 2021 combines financial and non-financial performance indicators
• 2011-2021: 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per metric ton produced. 51.7% renewable source energy achieved
• ESG criteria (environmental impact (E), social values (S), organizational governance (G)) determine sustainability strategy

The new RadiciGroup Sustainability Report has been published. With the goal of continuous improvement, the 2021 report has a broader reporting boundary compared to prior years and takes into consideration all the Group companies, including sales and service companies. Over 30 sites located across Asia, North America, South America and Europe have provided their 2021 data on economic, social and environmental performance.

Not only indicators of a financial nature but also measures of environmental impact (E), social values (S) and good organizational governance (G): the latter so-called ESG criteria have become a priority for RadiciGroup, which is preparing for the new European Union non-financial reporting directive in order to contribute to the transition towards a fully sustainable economic system and increase the value of its companies.

On the environmental front, the themes of climate change and decarbonization are RadiciGroup priorities and part of a policy aimed at the uncoupling of growth and resource usage. The Group undertakes to lower emissions from production and choose limited-impact energy sources. This commitment is confirmed by the numbers: in the 2011-2021 period, total emissions per metric ton produced were reduced by 60%, while renewable source energy used by the Group reached 51.7%. Specific investments to decrease environmental impact are ongoing: in 2021, EUR 3.1 million were allocated to introduce best available techniques and improve emissions abatement and energy efficiency.

RadiciGroup promotes professional growth by valuing competence and investment in training: Group training hours once again rose after the pandemic period from 36,000 hours in 2020 to 46,000 hours in 2021. The training method was often a hybrid, taking advantage of aspects experimented with during the pandemic, that is, less traveling and use of facilities in favour of higher groupwide attendance, without the need for participation limits. Fifty-five percent of total training hours was dedicated to health and safety, which has yielded positive results based on the related indicators.

Angelo Radici, president of RadiciGroup: “Today, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is our main guideline on sustainability issues. It shows us an ambitious scenario and urges us to confront a multitude of challenges that affect our enterprise from every point of view. We try to be quick to react and tenacious, staying faithful to our roots and our style, but expanding our perspective to become increasingly more competitive and proactive in the businesses we are engaged in. From the viewpoint of achieving less environmental impact in the future, we propose to be an enabler and facilitator for our stakeholders on themes such as the circular economy, where we see ourselves as protagonists in ecodesign and recycling, as well as innovation, which we put at the service of anyone who is processing and using our products, so as to offer real sustainability solutions together.”

A €20 million investment has been announced by AkzoNobel to increase and improve production at two of its sites in France. Around 30 new jobs will be created.

A total of €15 million will be spent on the company’s aerospace coatings facility in Pamiers, which was taken over following the Mapaero acquisition in 2019. Production capacity is being boosted by 50%, while the funds will also be used to reduce environmental impact and improve safety processes and working conditions.

The other €5 million will be spent on improving production flexibility at the decorative paints site in Montataire, which is one of the company’s most important manufacturing locations for wall paints in Europe.

The plans for Pamiers include the construction of two extensions, one for storage and one for cleaning and waste treatment. The project will also enable the company to relocate the production of exterior polyurethane paints for aircraft widely used in Europe from its Waukegan plant in the US.

Building work is expected to start by the end of 2023, with the new installations at both locations due to be operational in early 2025.

AkzoNobel employs nearly 1,500 people in France and operates four production facilities, in Montataire (decorative paints), Dourdan (powder coatings), Limoges (adhesive markings) and Pamiers (aerospace coatings).

The recent Techtextil show in Frankfurt emphasised the diversity of applications for nonwovens and technical textiles, according to finishing technology specialist Monforts.

“We fielded enquiries at top management level from an extremely wide range of companies, all with very different ideas for new product applications during the show,” said Alexander Fitz, who joined the company a year ago as engineer for textile technologies and co-ordinator of the Monforts Advanced Technology Centre (ATC). Fitz brings a background in both technical textile technology and processes to the role, having previously worked for a nonwovens machinery builder and a roll-goods manufacturer.

Trials
“We are now looking forward to interesting new trials and pilot production runs, as well as the commissioning of new orders for machines resulting from the extremely busy exhibition,” he says. “Obviously, everyone at the moment is looking to make energy savings, and we have developed a range of options for helping companies increase their resource efficiency, both on new lines and as retrofitted systems, but this is not stifling innovation at the new material level.

“There was a lot of interest in what is possible with the Montex®Coat coating system and the range of different techniques it enables, and at our ATC in Mönchengladbach, a Montex®Coat unit is integrated into the full technical textiles pilot line, on which it is possible to run new fabrics in widths of up to 1.8 metres.”

Explosion proof
The technical textiles line at the ATC incorporates a Montex four-chamber stenter and is fitted with an explosion-proof coating application chamber in order to allow treatment to be carried out with organic solvents and other volatile materials.

Every single component within the chamber has to meet the standards of the European Union’s ATEX directives for working in a potentially explosive atmosphere. A range of sensors linked to alarms operate at various levels within the chamber to ensure the specified lower explosion limit (LOL) is never exceeded and the ventilation adapts accordingly.

Advanced functions
Special features on the finishing line relate to further advanced functions such as the ability to treat materials not only at temperatures of up to 320°C, but also to be able to treat the top and bottom faces of certain materials at different temperatures within a single pass through the machine.

To achieve this, the first two chambers of the stenter are fitted with special, heavy duty TwinAir ventilation motors and separate burners for individual top/bottom temperature. A temperature differential of up to 60°C can be achieved between the upper and lower nozzles within the chamber, depending on the treatment paramenters.

Another key feature of the technical textiles line at the ATC is the special stretching device which is capable of pulling ten tons in length and ten tons in width – a huge amount per square metre of fabric and necessary in the production of materials such as woven or 3D knits for high temperature filter media.

The electrolyser producer Enapter has set itself the goal of developing its entire production process to run without negative impacts on the environment. As an important step on this journey, it is building the Enapter Campus production facility, which will be powered entirely from renewable energy produced on-site and in the neighbouring Bioenergiepark. The site in in Saerbeck, North Rhine-Westphalia combines electrolyser production, an R&D building, administration and office space, as well as a cantine over 82,000 square metres. Now the company wants to investigate what other measures can be implemented to achieve its “Life Cycle Impact Zero” aspirations – together with researchers from Fraunhofer UMSICHT, the Wuppertal Institute and the Institute of Sustainable Nutrition (iSuN) of FH Münster.

With the Life Cycle Impact Zero project, started on April 15, 2022, the parties want to develop and apply an especially comprehensive and holistic approach to environmental assessment. This includes chemical manufacturing and electrolyser production, as well as matters like the use of energy and water resources, the generation of waste or the human factor in general. This is intended to cover all interactions between business and people. That includes, in particular, Enapter’s employees, but also people in upstream and downstream value chains, users of the technology or residents close to the production site. A concept for sustainable employee catering is also being developed.

The basis for all environmental assessment that will be carried out is ISO 14040. The recognised international standard divides the research into four phases: Aim and scope of the study, inventory analaysis, impact assessment, as well as interpretation. Sensitivity analyses and scenario techniques are also used as further methods.

On the basis of these analyses, the 18-month project should derive concrete measures to avoid negative environmental impacts completely, if possible, for example in production, employee mobility or in energy supply. Furthermore, it will examine whether these measures are transferable to Enapter’s other locations – such as in Italy. Following on from the project, the steps defined should be implemented by Enapter in the next phase. In the subsequent Phase 3, a renewed analysis is planned. This will determine if the technological innovations achieved by then in the production and use of Enapter’s electrolysers can enable additional ecological improvements.

The Life Cycle Impact Zero project is supported by the State of NRW.

ROICA™ strengthens its presence in the apparel segment thanks to its established network of partners, who will present their latest innovations at the upcoming Première Vision.

ROICA™ partners are the “artists” and “heartists” of premium stretch in fabrics: because they have at heart all the values for which ROICA™ stands for. These partners presenting at Première Vision are:

• Iluna Group, whose journey into the new dimension of responsibility continues with developments in GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified recycled yarns aimed at unprecedented effects in looks, performance and hands. Brand new for this edition of Première Vision is the inclusion of GOTS-certified organic cotton in GRS-certified galloons and allover lace containing ROICA™ EF, so as to meet market demands for natural comfort in the underwear sphere.
• Innova Fabrics, which recently enhanced its smart offering by launching the RF (Residual Free) line, with the goal of reducing the impact of microplastics derived from the fashion industry. This is made possible by mixing two responsible ingredients, SENSIL® BioCare by Nilit and ROICA™ V550 by Asahi Kasei, which give birth to both sporty and casual fabrics.
• Inplet, which enriched its production of smart elastic and rigid knitted fabrics with three new products: a powernet fabric in 77% polyamide RECO and 23% ROICA™ EF with good recovery; a net fabric in 55% polyamide RECO and 45% ROICA™ EF characterized by a soft hand and good elasticity; and a 79% polyamide and 21% ROICA™ V550 good power, good recovery and a soft touch.
• Penn Textile Solutions/Penn Italia, whose highlights of the new collection are on one side fabrics developed with the use of Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550, characterized by restraining lace effect, soft touch and breathable, in combination with tulle as a sustainable basic, and on the other side charmeuses with soft hand, raw cut in combination with a band fabric from the dreamshape family with reinforced gripping edge, made again in Neride eco yarns by Nurel with ROICA™ V550
• Tessitura Colombo Antonio, which in its new A/W 23-24 collection expands its proposal of regenerated lace from the ECO-LACE line: new designs inspired by fashion trends using ROICA™ EF. Also, in its BIODEGRADABLE line it uses ROICA™ V550 for the realization of new designs. The new MICROMODAL line uses ROICA™ V550; the effect of this lace range is softness, elegance and relief effect.

Having first collaborated on the iconoclastic SST Ammonite shoe as part of the brand’s Catalyst for Change program in 2020, adidas Originals and MRBAILEY have come together once again to ignite the start of an ongoing partnership that will see the innovative designer reimagine the Trefoil’s futuristic OZWORLD family of silhouettes.

MRBAILEY is the founder of innovative footwear design studio CONCEPTKICKS. London-based but nomadic by nature, the progressive creator’s practice specializes in an approach to footwear innovation that is distinctly speculative in thinking and undeniably boundary pushing in execution.

Using the biological research that informed the SST Ammonite silhouette as its starting point and informed by the ethos “nature is our greatest luxury”, MR BAILEY’s collaborative partnership with adidas Originals will explore the innate systems of design within the marine habitat. Building on the inherent wonder and beauty of aquatic lifeforms through design techniques, the partnership promises to challenge the artificial distinction between man made production and the natural world.

International technology group ANDRITZ has established a new inline Wetlace™ CP pilot line with an original design at its center of competence in Montbonnot, France. The line combines both spunlace and wetlaid technologies.

From now on, partners will be able to conduct trials and test all options available for wipes production – from carded staple fibers to pulp and various combinations thereof. The combination of both spunlace and wetlaid technologies offers to move forward to more sustainable options while maintaining a high level of product quality, in particular by achieving high CD strength and good linting properties.

Over the past few decades, ANDRITZ has continued to innovate with various nonwoven processes, like spunlace, WetlaceTM and Wetlace™ CP, with the aim of optimizing the use of raw materials and focusing on sustainability by reducing the synthetic fiber content. Facing the growing demand for bio-wipes in parallel with enforcement of the EU’s single-use plastics directive last year, ANDRITZ has decided to support its customers making their investment decisions.

The Montbonnot pilot line has been rebuilt to integrate the new headbox inside the spunlace line. Pulp can be fed in directly and entangled with carded staple fibers to produce unique nonwoven fabrics designed for end uses as bio-wipes.

• New yarns for the contract furnishing world, for industrial sewing threads and the challenge of biodegradable polyester

At the product level, big impulse has been given to the range of industrial sewing threads for various uses, with new references both in the polyester + polyester compositions as well as in cotton + polyester. The industrial threads, marketed as raw material, allow the company to consolidate its position on some strategic markets, such as in Germany.

As a result of the partnership with Trevira® for the spinning of the flame-retardant Trevira^®CS fibre, Filidea Technical Yarns reinforces its offer of non-dyed performant yarns aimed at the world of contract furnishings. The sector of hospitality, of furnishings for public and work spaces, fairs and areas for social-cultural gatherings will find a comprehensive answer to its demands in the Trevira^®CS-based yarns: with regard to fireproof standards, versatility, resistance to wear and tear, excellent colour rendering, and last but not least, the component of fibre sustainability, an essential value for the design of spaces for collective use.

Continuing in the development of sustainable production across the sector, the company has undertaken two important initiatives with other actors in the textile supply chain. Filidea participates in Trick, the European blockchain project – part of the European Horizon 2020 programme – involving 29 partners from six different nations to reinforce the circular economy thanks to the development of a digital platform which is complete, traceable and available to operators in the textile sector.

MagnoLab, the network of enterprises in the textile supply chain, and of which Filidea is one of the founding members, gives the impulse to constant R&D activities. MagnoLab was established in 2022 in order to develop tangible solutions for the sector, to create values and to collaborate with regard to current and future demands.

MagnoLab brings together textile companies which are active at various stages of and with complementary roles in the supply chain, and which work in synergy and share objectives, resourcefulness and long-sightedness, with the aim of developing innovation in a structured way. MagnoLab is also open to welcome new partners.