A biodegradable fibre as polyester replacement for textiles

Every year millions of tons of microplastic end up in our environment, ocean, food chain and eventually in our bodies. 35% of the total annual release of microplastic into the oceans come from synthetic textiles. As the main contributor to this environmental issue the textile industry can create major impact to solve this problem. However, it requires a revolution: the main synthetic fibre – PET- has to be fully substituted by a biodegradable alternative - globally. Senbis will develop just that - an affordable and biodegradable textile fibre that can be upscaled to millions of tons. The new fibre can be revolutionary as it will be designed to meet all technical requirements of the (fashion) textile industry. It will have the properties to withstand the dying, washing and ironing processes, which is a problem for current available bioplastics. In addition, it will be a drop-in alternative to PET for the polycondensation, spinning and (chemical) recycling process. The new fibre will have to be price competitive in order to have a realistic chance on the market as a replacement for the current polyester. To do this, we will design a totally new polymer which can be produced from both oil-based and biobased feedstocks. The first option offers a technology to tackle the microfiber pollution problem as fast as technically possible. The second option is vital to reduce the GHG emissions from the production of synthetic textiles as soon as the market availability and prices allow on mass scale.
Our technology starts at the polycondensation step of the value chain and ends at the melt spinning. Senbis will design a polymer structure made out of already largely available monomers (feedstocks). We will define a spinning process to make a fibre for the textile industry from that new polymer. Once a solution is developed, Senbis will make it available to the large polyester manufacturers, e.g., via a licensing model.
This new biopolymer offers the potential to stop microfiber accumulation from polyester textile fibres on a global scale.
Senbis has unique experience in fiber spinning from (bio)polymers. State of the art pilot plants and a sophisticated textile lab, which is available in-house, offers unique innovation potential. Currently the project is financed by Senbis itself and supported by a European subsidy programme. More financing is needed to scale up the research. Senbis requires approx. EUR 2 million for the next two years to develop a first biodegradable lab sample. Overall Senbis estimates to need 8-10 years to get the end product ready to be produced on a scale of millions of tons.