Project description
New eco-friendly dyeing for textiles
The textile industry is a major source of environmental pollution. Fashion leaves a huge water footprint behind, using up to 1.6 billion litres each day. What is more, up to 20 % of industrial water pollution is due to fabric dyes and treatments. The EU-funded H2COLOR-AUX project aims to continue developing an auxiliary technology called H2COLOR AUX. Made by expert chemists, it prevents hydrolysis during dyeing and reduces the amount of energy, time and chemicals needed in this process. Thus, textile production will increase by 50 % at reduced costs and savings of up to 70 % in terms of water usage.
Objective
The textile industry is a major contributor to global water consumption . In India alone, 1.6 billion litres of water are used daily
in the textile industry. Given that only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater and only 0.3% is accessible to humans, this is
clearly unsustainable and grossly wasteful. In addition, industrial manufacturing in the textile industry is responsible for 20%
of all water pollution making it the number one polluter of clean water after agriculture.
The dyeing process is the prime contributor to much of the water, time and energy consumption that takes place in the textile
industry. On average, 60-80 litres of water are needed to dye 1kg of cotton and 80% of the total energy and 65% of the
many environmentally hazardous chemicals produced in textile production are a result of the dyeing process. In addition,
dyeing is also by far the most time-consuming process involved.
Growing populations and consumer needs are demanding more efficient and faster production than ever. Our solution is an
auxiliary technology, H2COLOR AUX. A revolutionary system developed by expert chemists that prevents hydrolysis in the
dyeing process. This greatly reduces the amount of energy, chemicals and time required for dyeing textiles. A similar
technology is used in our H2COLOR pigments which have superior properties than alternatives, while being less toxic and
more environmentally sustainable. Upon
commercialisation, we will save the world billions of litres of water per day, eliminate a globally leading polluter, increase
textile production by 50%, and reduce costs for a multitude of industries.
Customers of Ecofoot will have access to a highly-efficient, affordable, and easy-to-use dye-auxiliary product that saves 70%
of the water, 80% of the energy, 50% of the process time, and 30-40% of the costs along the dyeing process. Customers
using our product increase the sustainability of the textile industry and promote green environment technology.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringsynthetic dyes
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringtextiles
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
4805-298 PONTE GMR
Portugal
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.