In an effort to make the textile business more sustainable, the non-profit RTDS Group, the Austrian cellulosic fibre maker Lenzing Group, and 13 other partners are co-funding an EU initiative that will use bio-based lyocell filaments.
Lenzing clarified that in an effort to advance the textile industry towards better sustainability and a circular economy, the CELLFIL initiative unites 15 partners from industry and research to scale its lyocell filaments.
Lyocell filaments, which are environmentally benign, are intended to replace synthetic fibres in recyclable applications by streamlining the entire fabric production process, including intermediate processing steps. According to Lenzing, the goal of this strategy is to create and employ substitute sources of raw materials for textiles.
In order to promote a circular economy and scale up the manufacture of lyocell filaments, which are an environmentally beneficial substitute for the currently prevalent fossil-based synthetic filaments, it is believed that these goals must be achieved.
Lenzing Group’s head of lyocell filament development Markus Pichler shared, “We are still in the industrial start-up phase for lyocell filaments. Many aspects, such as the availability of lyocell filaments in the supply chain and technological adjustments for the processing of cellulose yarns, need to be addressed in order to change the capacities of the textile industry, which is currently more suited to polyester filaments.”
RTDS Group CEO and project coordinator Stephen Webb added, “We are proud to be working with key industry and academic partners to advance bio-based lyocell filaments and promote a more sustainable and circular textile industry through this innovation project.”
CELLFIL is backed by 15 partners from eight different nations and is a component of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation initiative. The Horizon Europe program of the European Union has provided € 6.9 million to support the implementation of this initiative.
Lenzing called the European Commission’s strategy for the textile industry “visionary” and stated that the goal is to create a circular economy where all textiles sold in the EU are long-lasting, recyclable, and repairable.
