An innovative polymer made from silica nanoparticles which greatly reduces water consumption and energy usage in texile dyeing.

Project Information

H2COLOR

Grant agreement ID: 101009619

DOI 10.3030/101009619

Project closed

EC signature date 8 September 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 31 March 2023

Funded under

• PRIORITY 'Societal challenges

Total cost € 1 572 500,00

EU contribution € 1 100 750,00

Coordinated by

ECOFOOT SA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - H2COLOR (An innovative polymer made from silica nanoparticles which greatly reduces water consumption and energy usage in texile dyeing.)

Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2023-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Water use within the textile industry leads to massive challenges for the world today. A report by the GFA and the Boston Consulting Group estimated that in 2015, the global textiles and clothing industry was responsible for a massive 79 billion cubic metres of water consumption, 1.7 billion tons of CO2 emissions and 92M tons of waste. Over 28 billion kilograms of textiles are dyed each year, with each kilogram requiring up to 250 litres of water. Worldwide, over 4.2 trillion litres of water are consumed each year in the textile dyeing process. The archaic dyeing processes are the prime contributor for too much of the water, time and energy consumption/CO2 emissions, that takes place in the textile industry.
Societal impact
The product proposed for dealing with sustainability in this project, H2COLOR-Aux, renamed H2COLOR, will contribute towards the objectives of EU climate goals of reducing CO2 emissions below levels of 1990 by 2030, and contribute to EU Green Deal goals: 1. Realising a zero-pollution ambition and a toxic-free environment and 2. Preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity. The proposed H2COLOR will bring a broad environmental and societal impact to a traditionally old fashion textile industry by reducing water and energy consumption and also improve productivity.
Project objectives
1. Increase the production capacity of H2COLOR by setting up a new facility at a new location and optimization of production line to produce the H2COLOR
2. Validating the new improved H2COLOR produced at the new production facility over a period of twelve months at 2 knitwear Perfil Cromático in Portugal and Tintoria Finissagio (TF2000) in Italy and 1 towel dyehouse, Mundotextil, in Portugal, to evaluate the performance of the H2COLOR validating the envisioned cost, energy and time savings in an operational environment.
3. Validating in more companies to obtain a wider and more valid statistical result.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The set-up of the new production facility at the new location was completed and the production line was optimized. The main problem of altering the mixing blades and the chemical parameters such as the viscosity of the dispersion was solved, thus solving the homogeneity problem of the product. Major progress was achieved with the present lay-out, in terms of production criteria by running trial runs with the new improved reactors and checking the quality of the product. The refinement in the production line has led to significant evolution in the stability (sedimentation and turbidity) of the product. The criteria for determining the stability of the product during storage through sedimentation and turbidity analysis was finalized.
The Validation initiated at the 3 companies that wrote letters of intention, which were submitted with the project, declaring their willingness to have trials done with H2COLOR at their premises. These companies were representative of the two most important sectors of dyehouses that dyed cotton and other cellulosic fibres (Lyocell) by exhaustion processes, carried out in jet machines, where mostly were knitwear and some woven fabric, such as towels, are dyed. The companies were Perfil Cromático, TF 2000 (Italy), for knitwear, and Mundotêxtil for towels. The results in these 3 companies, are in the DELIVERABLE submitted, and beside the cost savings calculation, they include tables of a number of baths and temperatures, and photos of the washing-off baths of unfixed dye (mostly hydrolysed. We were also aware of the competitive low temperature predominantly cationic washing product used at Mundotêxtil, which had preceded us in taking advantage of the energy crisis that happened in 2022, and therefore decided to tackle this competition which showed to be a very strong competition due to lower cost than that we were able to propose.
At TF200 also, even though we only obtained the report for black, since only one visit was made at this company in Italy, but nevertheless we had the indication from the technician in charge, a graduate engineer, that the product was performing well, even though only one report on black was sent as one example.
In another 10 knitwear companies we were only given information of the classical version of the process, at higher temperatures, to compare with ours, since they weren’t using the competitive cationic product. These results of the savings for the other companies are also given in a table included in the Deliverables 2.1 with average results of 67% energy, 18% water and 22% time, and all achieved good fastness with 60ºC soaping and 40ºC for remaining wash-baths.
Ecofoot pursued several communication and dissemination activities throughout the project. This includes an upgraded website, sample material distribution, such as TDS sheets, with the updated Ecofoot logo visits to companies explaining the technology. In the last year of the project with online publications and updates to social media, mainly LinkedIn with infographics, an animation and a video which we uploaded onto the webpage, www.ecofoot.pt. The CEO Jaime Rocha Gomes delivered a presentation by invitation of the Society of Dyers and Colourists in a webinar and raised awareness about H2COLOR.
Fairs were left for after the end of the project at the end of March, since ITMA, the largest fair for dissemination of dyes, auxiliaries, pigments and inks, takes place every 4 years, and this year it will be in Milan the 8th of June. Ecofoot booked a stand where present and future applications of H2COLOR (in digital printing) will be exposed.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

State of the Art processes for saving water and energy, are based on efficient washing-off agents, or high affinity dyes, that by reacting preferentially with the fibre than with water, will reduce secondary reactions with water, forming hydrolysed of the dye and have less dye to remove. These methods have not however solved the problem, since the washing-off agents even though have improved slightly over the years, are a post-treatment not preventing the problem, the formation of hydrolysed dye therefore being only a remedy not a solution. New products in the market, such as cationic washing-off agents, improve considerably the washing-off process, saving energy, water, and time. They have however secondary effects when used in the quantity necessary for removing high concentration of unfixed dye, as is the case of black and other very dark colours, such as dark navy colour, such as deposits on the fabrics, causing spots and stains. For that reason, they are used in low concentrations, and do not consequently have the same savings as in the other colours, such as medium intensity colours (red and blue). H2COLOR can be used at any concentration without such secondary effects, the only restriction being the cost at such high concentrations when applied in black colour, for example. In total, H2COLOR can potentially save up to 70% of the total energy costs and lower 70% CO2 emissions, higher than any of the mentioned alternatives, especially on black and other very dark colours, which are the ones that consume the most energy, water, and time.

Reactors in new facility