Professional guide

Synthetics in production

Synthetics are derived from petroleum, but in the production phase they can save energy, water and chemicals when processes are combined.

As we have already mentioned, synthetics are the most used fibres in the world today, even surpassing cotton. This is a screen shot from Eco Metrics of a polyester t-shirt... Compare with other textiles in the over-view below:

Fiber                              EDU’s per kg
 

Conventional Cotton                34
Organic Cotton                          28
Lyocell                                         28
Wool                                            24
Polyester                                    25
Cold Dyed Cotton                     28
Hemp                                          27
Dope Dyed Polyester               19

We've included this little "quick glance" from Colour Connection's Environmental Damage Unit pr kilo textile overview. Colour Connections does a very detailed analysis, but because every stage of the fibre is part of the variable - including what type of dyeing process the textile is subject to, you can quickly see what makes a difference. And for polyester the numbers are pretty surprising.

Antimony-free polyester
Starting with a design process at molecular level, one can now substitute dangerous chemicals with healthy dyestuffs and auxiliary chemicals – including a new catalyst to replace antimony - the hazardous chemical used in polyester production. EIP (Eco-Intelligent Polyester) can be safely recycled in to new fabrics, with none of the hazardous by-products of traditional polyester recycling.

New eco-nylon
Premiere Fibers, a company that manufactures nylon, polyester and other spinnable filament yarns, has launched Ecoinnovations nylon 6.6 fiber that contains “recycled material”. The new Earth-Color fibre has no separate dyeing process, thus conserving thousands of gallons of water, resources and chemicals. As it is melt-pigmented, the color is literally part of the fiber itself.

Biodegradable polyester based on CO²  
BASF SE and CSM nv has announced the cooperation between their respective subsidiaries BASF Future Business GmbH and PURAC for the development of the production of biobased succinic acid. The greenhouse gas CO² will be used as a raw material and fixed during the highly efficient fermentation process, contributing further to sustainable development. Biobased succinic acid will be applied as a building block in a variety of biopolymers, e.g. biodegradable polyesters. This is big, because polyester is not biodegradable! Furthermore, low cost succinic acid has high potential as a platform chemical and its downstream products. Both companies will work together in order to achieve manufacturing cost levels making biobased succinic acid competitive for a wide variety of novel applications.

Bye-bye oil as basis for polyester? And even better: Bye-bye antimony? For information on Ingeo™, see under "Other materials and yarns".