Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Glaukos (Circular solutions for the textile industry)
Reporting period: 2021-12-01 to 2023-05-31
Glaukos* will develop innovative textile fibres and textile coatings that reconcile an excellent environmental performance with adequate technical characteristics. The focus lies on two important contributors to the (micro)plastic pollution in our oceans: fishing gear and clothing. The complete life cycle of these textiles will be redesigned: their sustainability performance (i.e. biodegradability and bio-recyclability) will be enhanced significantly, while their technical performance will be matched to end-user requirements. Glaukos builds upon i) triggerable biodegradability as key concept in polymer design to mitigate textile-based microplastics pollution, and ii) bio-recycling as sustainable end-of-life solution. In addition, the supply chain distance is substantially reduced by scaling up a disruptive way of producing the main polymer building block from several bio-based feedstocks. The underlying objective of Glaukos is to reduce the carbon and the plastic footprint of clothing and fishing gear.
Stakeholder engagement is an integral part of the project: i) Stakeholder Labs will be set up to involve end-users from the clothing and fishing gear industry (e.g. to match technical requirements), ii) consumer awareness will be raised via e.g. influencer marketing, and iii) the fishing gear industry will be supported as regards to Extended Producer Responsibility on fishing gear litter. New Life Cycle Assessment methods will be developed to better assess the plastic footprint of textile value chains. Finally, integrated methods to assess the biodegradability and ecotoxicity of textile-based microplastics in marine environments will be developed and their standardization initiated.
(* Glaukos is the Greek sea god of fishermen. He was commonly believed to protect the ocean; and so is the ambition of this project by developing innovative alternatives for textiles that are currently polluting our ocean.)
Stakeholder engagement is an integral part of the project: i) Stakeholder Labs will be set up to involve end-users from the clothing and fishing gear industry (e.g. to match technical requirements), ii) consumer awareness will be raised via e.g. influencer marketing, and iii) the fishing gear industry will be supported as regards to Extended Producer Responsibility on fishing gear litter. New Life Cycle Assessment methods will be developed to better assess the plastic footprint of textile value chains. Finally, integrated methods to assess the biodegradability and ecotoxicity of textile-based microplastics in marine environments will be developed and their standardization initiated.
(* Glaukos is the Greek sea god of fishermen. He was commonly believed to protect the ocean; and so is the ambition of this project by developing innovative alternatives for textiles that are currently polluting our ocean.)
The progress and innovation to provide circular solutions to the textile industry is on track within the project.
Glaukos is following its dissemination and exploitation strategy, while reaching out to the scientific and industrial community. Glaukos organised already two Stakeholder Lab events and other workshops. The outcomes of these events are available on the web page of the project.
Glaukos designed two families of polymers containing a total of 30+ different polymers. To pave the way towards the prototypes (a clothing and fishing gear prototype) characterization and development of lab scale spinning process for new biobased polymers are ongoing. The newly developed Glaukos biodegradation protocols were further applied and demonstrated within the project. Significant progress has been achieved in obtaining, optimizing, and characterizing enzymes for bio-recycling of Glaukos eco-polymers.
The sustainability performance of Glaukos solution for its environmental impacts beyond ‘traditional’ Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) started with the integration of circularity indicators into a broader sustainability assessment.
Glaukos is following its dissemination and exploitation strategy, while reaching out to the scientific and industrial community. Glaukos organised already two Stakeholder Lab events and other workshops. The outcomes of these events are available on the web page of the project.
Glaukos designed two families of polymers containing a total of 30+ different polymers. To pave the way towards the prototypes (a clothing and fishing gear prototype) characterization and development of lab scale spinning process for new biobased polymers are ongoing. The newly developed Glaukos biodegradation protocols were further applied and demonstrated within the project. Significant progress has been achieved in obtaining, optimizing, and characterizing enzymes for bio-recycling of Glaukos eco-polymers.
The sustainability performance of Glaukos solution for its environmental impacts beyond ‘traditional’ Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) started with the integration of circularity indicators into a broader sustainability assessment.
Significant progress in the development and scale-up of the Glaukos building bock production process was achieved from sugars and industrial waste streams from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from 3 to 5, thus de-risking the process of fluctuations of individual substrates availability. The enhancement of the overall process yield is supported by down-stream purification. The process in an integrated approach, including product purification, was successfully demonstrated at 1500 L scale.
Pilot scale production of the Glaukos polymers was also demonstrated at TRL5 already.
The characterization of newly developed biopolymers and melt spinning in lab scale was performed that resulted already in lab-scale demonstrators.
A protocol roadmap was developed, where several methods regarding the end of life of plastics are included.
Significant progress has been achieved in obtaining, optimizing, and characterizing enzymes for bio-recycling of Glaukos eco-polymers.
A methodological guidelines that will be followed for the beyond ‘traditional’ life-cycle assessments, will be provided at the end of the project. A ‘position’ paper will be made available with the aim to provide a base for decision making that is based on robust metrics that are selected to catch potential trade-offs. Method will be publicly available, tested on the Glaukos case, to provide guidelines for similar projects. The ultimate ambition is to offer policymakers, the industry and other stakeholders advanced methods and tools for the reliable assessment of the textile value chain and its impact on the environment and society. The multi-indicator assessment is running according to the intended timeline, with the initial data collection phase completed and the preliminary analysis ongoing.
By the active engagement activities of Glaukos the project will foster European research and innovation by promoting knowledge exchange and collaborations and provide recommendations in light of incoming European initiatives and policies.
Pilot scale production of the Glaukos polymers was also demonstrated at TRL5 already.
The characterization of newly developed biopolymers and melt spinning in lab scale was performed that resulted already in lab-scale demonstrators.
A protocol roadmap was developed, where several methods regarding the end of life of plastics are included.
Significant progress has been achieved in obtaining, optimizing, and characterizing enzymes for bio-recycling of Glaukos eco-polymers.
A methodological guidelines that will be followed for the beyond ‘traditional’ life-cycle assessments, will be provided at the end of the project. A ‘position’ paper will be made available with the aim to provide a base for decision making that is based on robust metrics that are selected to catch potential trade-offs. Method will be publicly available, tested on the Glaukos case, to provide guidelines for similar projects. The ultimate ambition is to offer policymakers, the industry and other stakeholders advanced methods and tools for the reliable assessment of the textile value chain and its impact on the environment and society. The multi-indicator assessment is running according to the intended timeline, with the initial data collection phase completed and the preliminary analysis ongoing.
By the active engagement activities of Glaukos the project will foster European research and innovation by promoting knowledge exchange and collaborations and provide recommendations in light of incoming European initiatives and policies.