Creative chemistry
Cooking oils and fruit stones are among the new raw materials being harnessed to make textile auxiliaries. In addition to recycling food industry waste, makers of functional finishes are also switching to plant or biobased formulations, signalling a move away from petrochemicals in the business of textile additives.
New recipes are being cooked up, literally, in the world of chemicals for textiles. Italian company Erca makes its auxiliaries to treat fibres and fabrics from used vegetable oils, the first, it says, to carry GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certification. Citric acid, an ingredient commonly found in food, is the active ingredient that powers Noble Biomaterials’ Ionic+ Botanical, launched in 2022.
Sometimes innovative solutions are staring you right in the face,” says Joel Furey, company founder and chief commercial officer, of the plant-derived antibacterial finish. Polygiene’s new antibacterial finish is fully plant-based and its active ingredient, lactic acid, is also widely used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. StayFresh Bio, as it is called, was developed in partnership with Proneem, a French biotech company that specialises in natural actives, all of which are produced in France. “For quite some time, we have been looking for a biobased technology that meets all our tough quality requirements, which has not been easy,” said Polygiene CEO, Ulrika Björk, ahead of the product launch at Ispo in 2023.
The switch to recycled or renewable ingredients extends to a wide array of solutions and companies. They are driving innovation at German chemicals supplier Rudolf, whose latest moisture-wicking solution, Hydrocool, is biobased, following up on Ruco-Dry Bio, a durable water repellent (DWR) finish made from plant-derived processing waste. “New biobased materials are being released on the market on an ongoing basis,” says Stephan Müller, the company’s business development manager. The goal, he says, is to increase biobased content without sacrificing performance and to continue to identify compounds from renewable sources that can perform in a similar way to petroleum-based ones.
Waste not
First introduced five years ago, Erca’s Revecol, for Recycled Vegetable Cooking Oil, has slowly expanded to include auxiliaries that cover the preparation, dyeing and finishing of synthetic fibres, recycled or not. This product category is now managed by a stand-alone company, Erca Textile Chemical Solutions, or Erca TCS, spun off from the Grassobbio-based chemicals company earlier this year.
As Fabio Locatelli, Erca TCS CEO, tells WSA, the collection of used vegetable oils is regulated and monitored in Italy by various organisations. One of these, CONOE, estimates that 260,000 tonnes of used vegetable oil are generated annually in the country from both professional and domestic activities. Only 80,000 tonnes are collected and sent to regeneration processes. “We have achieved an important goal by completely replacing castor oil and palm oil with recovered vegetable oil in a good part of Revecol products. Until a few years ago this seemed impossible,” he says. Last year, Japanese trimmings manufacturer YKK converted the dyeing processes of a factory in Vietnam to Revecol LV-TS, which is said to have a 72% lower carbon footprint than conventional chemical auxiliaries produced by Erca.
Fruit stones are the novel active ingredient in Rudolf’s Rucolase DWS. Their abrasive fraction is used as an alternative sanding agent for denim laundries. The company cannot say exactly which type of fruit the product is derived from. “But we can say that this particular renewable raw material was chosen for its hardness and density, its roughness and surface irregularities, and its composition which contributes to its resistance and durability,” says Alberto De Conti, who heads Rudolf Hub1922. The fruit stone content of the solution has many advantages, he adds: “The very fine, natural granulate penetrates deep into the cotton fibres and causes a very effective micro-abrasion. Its high hemicellulose and pectin content forms a gel when in contact with wet garments, preventing the product from being lost in an open drum.” In addition, a small amount of vegetable oils, extracted during tumbling, generates a very appealing sheen and smooths the cotton fluff. Finally, Rucolase DWS avoids all the obvious health and safety problems associated with handling sand and drastically reduces any problems associated with machine damage and excess sludge in the treatment plant, which he says can account for 20-25% of a laundry’s operating costs.
The switch to renewable
Silver is one of the main antibacterial agents used today to limit the growth of bacteria on activewear, and although it is natural, concerns regarding its use have inspired a search for alternative solutions. Last year, fabric developer Polartec introduced a new product called Fresh Face, which it describes as a natural and renewable odour reducer based on mint oil. Noble Biomaterials’ new Ionic+ Botanical derives its antimicrobial properties from citric acid. “Citric acid is a plant-based industrial solution that meets the criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States, which is the largest market for antimicrobial solutions,” says Allon Cohne, marketing director for Noble Biomaterials, adding that EPA approval can take a long time to secure, and the decision to choose an active that was already registered sped up the development process. “What we needed to do was to develop a textile application,” he tells WSA. The company has been conducting tests with mills throughout 2023 and two brands have adopted the novel solution. Salomon is introducing Ionic+ Botanical in a revamped running range and Trident, a maker of home textiles, has also adopted the new finish.
Ionic+ Botanical is a topical solution that is applied after a fabric has been manufactured, as opposed to Noble Biomaterials’ legacy technology, X-Static, in which silver is embedded into a fibre during extrusion. “We are proponents of permanent efficiency, which we offer by embedding silver in a yarn that will never wash out. Durability is key to our company’s mission,” insists Mr Cohne. For brands that need some flexibility in their fabric selection process, a topical finish may be preferred.
Fully plant-based solutions
Some suppliers of additives or auxiliaries have made plant or biobased ingredients their core focus. This is the case for Proneem, a biotech company based in Marseille and founded in 2003. Over the years, it has identified a range of natural actives that repel bugs and offer a fresh or a warming effect for activewear. Its new, patented lactic acid solution inhibits the growth of odour-causing bacteria by up to 99.99%, and is the result of three years of research, says founder and CEO, Nathalie Hagège. It is now being offered by Polygiene through an exclusive agreement.
RDD Textiles, the innovation lab of Portuguese textile manufacturing group Valerius, is another company seeking to extract useful chemicals from food industry and agricultural waste. Dyeing is a major focus of its research, says Ana Tavares, RDD Textiles CEO.
The company works with a number of textile start-ups to assist them in industrialising their processes. It operates a biotech fermenter that produces pigments developed by UK start-up Colorifix. It can also dye fabrics using Officina39’s Recycrom dyes (extracted from used textiles), Living Ink’s algae-based black pigment and the food waste dyes developed by Japanese company Toyoshima.
The European Commission has plans for higher targets for reducing food and textile industry waste. It estimates that 60 million tonnes of food and 12.6 million tonnes of textiles are discarded every year in the European Union. Chemicals companies have already begun to play their part in this cause, as seen. “Our R&D department is often solicited to study new opportunities that go precisely in the direction of circularity and sustainability,” says Mr Locatelli of Erca TCS. Renewable and recycled content is also, as mentioned, part of Rudolf’s move away from petrochemicals. These are promising signs of change. But there are probably several tens of thousands of different chemicals used in the textile industry. Creative green chemistry needs to be more than just a trend.
Salomon’s new trail running range features Noble Biomaterials’ Ionic + Botanical Technology whose anti-odour properties are derived from citric acid, a common food industry ingredient.
Credit: Salomon Sports
