06. Jun 2017

New renewably-sourced biodegradable fibres for fabrics with advanced properties

New renewably-sourced biodegradable fibres for fabrics with advanced properties

The FIBFAB project, funded under European Union’s Horizon 2020 Fast Track Innovation Pilot programme, is exploring the development sustainable textile fibres able to replace polyester. The aims: higher breathability, lower weight, better tinting and UV-resistance – and more sustainability.

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Each year, yarn spinning produces around one million tons of fabrics made from a combination of natural fibres (such as cotton or wool) and synthetic fibres (such as polyester), that are used for clothing applications in Europe. These blends of natural fibres and synthetics were developed to enhance the wearing comfort and durability of the end products. 

Yet at the end of life, these standard fabrics are very difficult to recycle: the two types of fibre are entwined and impossible to separate.

Today, companies in the textile industry must turn to innovative and high added value products in order to successfully survive the competition with low-wage countries. The FIBFAB project is an example of such innovative thinking. It has been initiated to successfully launch and industrialize the production of biodegradable and sustainable polylactic acid (PLA) based fabrics (wool/PLA and cotton/PLA) for casual wear (menswear and womenswear), protective and workwear applications; the project also aims to overcome the current limitations of PLA fibres as a real alternative to current fabrics (wool and cotton combined with polyester fibres). To that end, the knowhow and methodology developed in two prior European projects, BIOFIBROCAR and BIOAGROTEX, will be utilized.

The FIBFAB project has been set up to investigate how to obtain a final clothing product that is 100% bio-based, compostable and biodegradable, and that delivers the mechanical and performance required for applications in the textile sector. Another goal is to improve the current poor thermal resistance of PLA fibres, to enable them to meet the requirements of various clothing applications, using technology developed in previous EU projects to enhance the final PLA crystallinity.

As far as the actual the PLA fibre manufacturing process is concerned, the processing parameters will be optimized in order to produce thinner fibres (less than 3 dtex), as will, the mechanical spinning process (friction control in ring spinning), to allow the PLA blend fibres to be spun at higher speeds. This will yield textile market yarns and fabrics produced from PLA fibres and cotton or wool with important advantages, such as better breathability, better hydrophilic properties to make easier the tinting process, a higher resistance to degradation by UV rays, low smoke production and flammability and lower density, and hence lower weight, than PES.

The project has a duration of 24 months. Participant companies include: CENTEXBEL, DS Fibres (Belgium), Yünsa (Turkey) and SINTEX (Czech Republic). Together with AIMPLAS, who is coordinating the project, these consortium members cover the entire textile value chain, from fibre production to clothing manufacturing, thus ensuring the industrial implementation of PLA fibres.

For further information:
http://fibfab-project.eu

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