‘Limitless possibilities’ for new bio-manufactured polymer pellets
Material science company Bloom Labs has announced a development that it says will lead to “next-generation alternatives to natural and synthetic fibres and plastics”.
New York-based Bloom Labs wants to harness the value of natural waste by-products to create material for high-performance clothing. It has said these waste by-products are “a protein-rich and globally abundant raw material”, explaining to sportstextiles that it consists of proteins that occur in biomass waste steams. Bloom Labs has calculated that, around the world, almost 7 million tonnes of this protein waste accumulates every year.
Furthermore, it has said the method it has developed for using this raw material to make polymers for clothing is scalable and commercially viable and avoids the use of petrochemicals and resource-intensive processes.
Its proprietary technology uses bio-manufacturing, protein engineering and molecular biology to plasticise the waste, regenerating it into pellets. These pellets can then be spun into high-performance fibres that Bloom Labs has described as being “as plush as cotton, as lush as silk, and as functional as polyester”. Its system treats the protein fibres as thermoplastics, although they are 100% biobased. The fibres can blend with natural or synthetic fibres but will work on their own too.
It has said the pellets its system produces can be seamlessly integrated into manufacturers’ existing production processes, making the new technology plug-and-play. The plasticised protein pellets are the invention of Dr Walter Schmidt, a former US Department of Agriculture research scientist, who has been working as a scientific advisor at Bloom Labs since February.
Bloom Labs chief executive, Simardev Gulati, is a third-generation textile entrepreneur, who has previously produced clothing for major brands including Nike, Under Armour, Lululemon and JCPenney.
He said fabric testing will begin in the coming months and added that he believes the new technology has “limitless possibilities”.
