Sustainable, bio-based textiles will be presented at the international fabric trade fair Munich Fabric Start, which takes place from today to Thursday, including in the Biotexfuture innovation space funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Here, for example, there is a sustainable solution for the production of elastane, but also biopolymers that are intended to replace petroleum-based products in the areas of automobiles, sportswear, interior design and technical textiles.
Elastane is currently used as a stretch component in around 80 percent of all clothing, from jeans and socks to suits. The total global production of polyurethane filament yarns has a volume of 1.1 to 1.2 million tons and is currently growing by 8 to 10 percent per year, particularly in the areas of sports textiles and medical textile products.
Politics as a driver of innovation
With effect from December 12, 2023, the solvent dimethylformamide (DMF) was banned in the European Union because it is potentially harmful to health. It is needed together with the solvent dimethylacetamide (DMAc) for classic elastane production, but its use will be increasingly restricted across the EU in the future.
Researchers at the Institute for Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University (ITA) have found a sustainable solution for the production of elastane, which is currently being presented at Munich Fabric Start. It has the potential to “soon be able to replace conventional elastane on an industrial scale, depending on the application,” according to a press release. The manufacturing costs are “comparable” and there are “slight advantages” in terms of energy balance.
The project called CO2Tex relies on melt-spun elastic filament yarns made from CO2-containing thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and has reached technology maturity level 6, “prototype in operational environment”. The researchers are currently working on expanding this to technology readiness level 8 (“Qualified system with proof of functionality in the area of use”) so that large-scale industrial production can be targeted.
Another advantage is the subsequent recyclability: “Due to the chemical structure of the TPU used, there are fundamental possibilities for thermomechanical, chemical or biological recycling, although this still needs to be researched in detail. “This means that textiles containing these new yarns can potentially be recycled at all or more easily in terms of materials or raw materials at the end of their life cycle than clothing with conventionally produced elastane,” according to the statement.
Biopolymers are intended to replace polyester and polyamide
The aim of the BioBase project is to establish a path for bio-based polymers in the textile industry and to demonstrate their full potential, primarily investigating bio-based polyesters and polyamides that are made partly or entirely from renewable raw materials such as corn, rapeseed or castor should be replaced.
For this purpose, four key sectors of the German textile industry were selected: automotive, sportswear, interior design and technical textiles. In each sector, at least one petroleum-based product was selected as a benchmark, which should be replaced by a product made from biopolymers with properties that are as equivalent as possible.
“It looks good, but we will definitely need a few more years before our processes and the products we can produce with them are ready for industrial mass production,” says one of the scientists at Aachen University.
Yarns and textile surfaces made from bio-based polymers as well as the first concrete demonstration objects for the interior design area are currently being presented at Munich Fabric Start.
Munich Fabric Start will take place from January 23rd to 25th, 2024 in Lilienthalallee in Munich.