Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NewNormal (New Sustainable Fiber Production Technology)
Période du rapport: 2020-07-01 au 2021-03-31
Textiles industry is one of the largest consumers industries globally, generating €1.5 trillion annually. The overall consumption of apparel is on the rise, promising further growth to the industry. However, textiles industry is also one of the most polluting industries producing 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. In addition, there is a shortage of supply of raw materials.
Natural fibres like cotton require massive amounts of water, whereas viscose production utilises hazardous chemicals. Oilbased alternatives, like polyester, are the largest contributors of plastic microfibres in oceans. These trends are forcing the textiles industry to actively look for alternative raw materials. If they cannot find one, their profits will drop significantly in the next decades.
Finnish SME Infinited Fiber Company (IFC) has developed low-cost process for producing cellulose based fibre from textiles waste. The fibre product – called Infinited Fibre – is sustainable, affordable, and available in unlimited quantities. Unlike viscose and polyester, Infinited Fibre has the touch and feel of cotton, which is preferred by consumers. It is the only fibre that meets the industry needs.
IFC has already built an industrial pilot for producing 50 tons of Infinited Fibre annually. The whole capacity of the pilot has been acquired by some of the biggest fashion brands in the world. More than 15 brands have tested the fibre product with extremely positive. They are now looking forward to launching Infinited Fibre based consumer products.
The NewNormal project supported the scale-up of Infinited Fibre production. As a result of the project, we reached the commercialisation phase of Infinited Fibre.
Natural fibres like cotton require massive amounts of water, whereas viscose production utilises hazardous chemicals. Oilbased alternatives, like polyester, are the largest contributors of plastic microfibres in oceans. These trends are forcing the textiles industry to actively look for alternative raw materials. If they cannot find one, their profits will drop significantly in the next decades.
Finnish SME Infinited Fiber Company (IFC) has developed low-cost process for producing cellulose based fibre from textiles waste. The fibre product – called Infinited Fibre – is sustainable, affordable, and available in unlimited quantities. Unlike viscose and polyester, Infinited Fibre has the touch and feel of cotton, which is preferred by consumers. It is the only fibre that meets the industry needs.
IFC has already built an industrial pilot for producing 50 tons of Infinited Fibre annually. The whole capacity of the pilot has been acquired by some of the biggest fashion brands in the world. More than 15 brands have tested the fibre product with extremely positive. They are now looking forward to launching Infinited Fibre based consumer products.
The NewNormal project supported the scale-up of Infinited Fibre production. As a result of the project, we reached the commercialisation phase of Infinited Fibre.
WP1 achievements
Production capacity has been successfully extended from 50 tons / annum to 150 ton /annum. The 2nd pilot plant was taken into use 1.2.2020.
The company has successfully
• Developed concept solutions for new continuous dissolving process providing 30% productivity increase.
• Created concept solutions for recycling of main effluent stream like recycling and recovery of Zn for the spinning bath, recycling of pre-treatment chemistry and recycling of urea at the carbamation process.
• Run large number of laboratory and pilot scale tests to find processing solutions to extend the raw material specification.
• Created blueprint for 30 kton / annum carbamation plant
• Created contractual model for license sales and delivery ecosystem
WP2 achievements
Environmental performance of Infinited Fiber Company’s fiber manufacture technology was assessed by using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. This LCA study was done as a Master’s thesis.
WP3 achievements
Market pull for Infinited Fiber has been successfully created by signing 10 customers, fashion brands, who are expected to sign offtake agreements.
Infinited Fiber has been comprehensively testing the fiber in fashion supply chain via cooperation with manufacturers and ensuring the commercial feasibility of the cellulose carbamate fiber.
The tests in yarn spinning have included all the available yarn spinning methods and multiple different weight of yarns with multiple different blends have been trialled.
The Infinited Fiber Company website was completely renewed in January 2021 to align the messaging and visuals with the current development phase of the company.
We stepped up our media outreach activities by setting up global press release publication and media monitoring through Meltwater, and by creating new, targeted global media lists.
Total media exposure during the period (Aug. 1, 2020 – March 25, 2021) was at 1.82k with total potential media reach at 1.35 billion.
Production capacity has been successfully extended from 50 tons / annum to 150 ton /annum. The 2nd pilot plant was taken into use 1.2.2020.
The company has successfully
• Developed concept solutions for new continuous dissolving process providing 30% productivity increase.
• Created concept solutions for recycling of main effluent stream like recycling and recovery of Zn for the spinning bath, recycling of pre-treatment chemistry and recycling of urea at the carbamation process.
• Run large number of laboratory and pilot scale tests to find processing solutions to extend the raw material specification.
• Created blueprint for 30 kton / annum carbamation plant
• Created contractual model for license sales and delivery ecosystem
WP2 achievements
Environmental performance of Infinited Fiber Company’s fiber manufacture technology was assessed by using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. This LCA study was done as a Master’s thesis.
WP3 achievements
Market pull for Infinited Fiber has been successfully created by signing 10 customers, fashion brands, who are expected to sign offtake agreements.
Infinited Fiber has been comprehensively testing the fiber in fashion supply chain via cooperation with manufacturers and ensuring the commercial feasibility of the cellulose carbamate fiber.
The tests in yarn spinning have included all the available yarn spinning methods and multiple different weight of yarns with multiple different blends have been trialled.
The Infinited Fiber Company website was completely renewed in January 2021 to align the messaging and visuals with the current development phase of the company.
We stepped up our media outreach activities by setting up global press release publication and media monitoring through Meltwater, and by creating new, targeted global media lists.
Total media exposure during the period (Aug. 1, 2020 – March 25, 2021) was at 1.82k with total potential media reach at 1.35 billion.
• Capacity 50 tons / a extended to 150 ton /a. Capacity extension taken into use 1.2.2020. Capital expenditure to extend the capacity to planned 300 ton / a would have been too large for the company and delayed the market entry.
• Continuous production process in use for other than process parts than dissolving stage. Continuous process for dissolving stage validated successfully in small pilot scale. Planning ongoing for preparing the blueprints for upscaling to industrial size process as well as piloting is larger scale.
• Pilot has been run 24/7 successfully meeting targeted productional and quality KPI’s.
• Fiber quality optimized and verified meeting the quality standards
• Created strong customer base for license product. Focusing now on two most promising projects; one in China and other one in Europe. Company is expecting that final investment decision regarding these two industrial scale factories would be taken during 2022. The European factory would create 100+ direct jobs and 500+ indirect jobs in textile waste collection supply chain.
• Strengthened the team by 16 persons: CMO started 14.1.2020 CFO 1.4.2020 PR and Communications Manager 1.8.2020 Finance Manager 20.3.2020 COO 2.11.2020 Account manager 1.3.2021 2 Process Development Engineers, 2 Laboratory technicians and 6 Process Technicians.
• Filed the application for fiber Trademark.
• Agreed with 7 customers about capsule collection launches to markets.
• Continuous production process in use for other than process parts than dissolving stage. Continuous process for dissolving stage validated successfully in small pilot scale. Planning ongoing for preparing the blueprints for upscaling to industrial size process as well as piloting is larger scale.
• Pilot has been run 24/7 successfully meeting targeted productional and quality KPI’s.
• Fiber quality optimized and verified meeting the quality standards
• Created strong customer base for license product. Focusing now on two most promising projects; one in China and other one in Europe. Company is expecting that final investment decision regarding these two industrial scale factories would be taken during 2022. The European factory would create 100+ direct jobs and 500+ indirect jobs in textile waste collection supply chain.
• Strengthened the team by 16 persons: CMO started 14.1.2020 CFO 1.4.2020 PR and Communications Manager 1.8.2020 Finance Manager 20.3.2020 COO 2.11.2020 Account manager 1.3.2021 2 Process Development Engineers, 2 Laboratory technicians and 6 Process Technicians.
• Filed the application for fiber Trademark.
• Agreed with 7 customers about capsule collection launches to markets.