Professional guide

Elemental_textiles for a sustainable fashion industry

Although washing and drying clothes may consume a lot of energy and water, there are many sustainable contributions to be made in the textile industry even before the clothes reach the consumer.

Already today, bioinnovation from Novozymes can enable such processes, but the solutions are often used as stand-alone products. So, in order to get manufacturers to use nature’s own enzymes in all of their processes for cotton fabrics, Novozymes joined forces with global textile and apparel manufacturer Esquel to demonstrate the impact of today’s enzyme technology. This was done by employing all bioinnovative solutions at different stages of the production of one t-shirt. 

Enzymatic solutions are elemental
Trials were performed at Esquel’s facilities using the best available technology today, bioinnovation and chemicals, on knitted fabric. The fabric was first processed with bioscouring and low temperature bleaching. Next was the dyeing process, during which Cellusoft® Combi, which removes residual hydrogen peroxide and then bioblasts fabrics, was applied. The trials finished with a biosoaping of the fabric using an enzymatic rinse solution. As a result Novozymes produced an “elemental t-shirt”, a showcase of the overall concept “elemental textiles”.

Amazingly, the life cycle assessment conducted by Novozymes indicates a possible savings of 70,000 liters of water and 1,000 kilos of CO² per ton knitted fabric in the first attempt to produce a sustainable garment. It also showed reduced process time of 20-25%.

Creating textiles using the best technology available is elemental not just because of the improved quality and immediate savings in costs, but also because it helps protect the elements:

Water: Elemental textiles saves water and makes waste water more environmentally friendly
Air: Elemental textiles reduces CO² emissions and other damaging particles
Fire: Elemental textiles lowers energy consumption and the use of fossil fuels
Earth: Elemental textiles gets you more fabrics from your crops and reduces usage of total farmland

Bioinnovation paves the way
Substituting chemicals with enzymatic solutions throughout the process does not affect quality - that is something enzymes do not compromise with. Novozymes therefore sees great potential in enzymatic alternatives like elemental textiles, which can pave the way for a more sustainable textile industry. But it does not stop there. With 9 million ton of knitwear being produced every year, there is great potential for the elemental process.

Novozymes’ collaboration with Esquel on developing the elemental t-shirt shows that rethinking conventional processes and incorporating sustainable ones instead is actually good business because it leads to reduced manufacturing costs, increased competitiveness, better profits and higher quality fabrics. That is why going ahead with elemental textiles is commonsense. 
Photos: ©Novozymes 2009