Approaches of enzyme-based biotechnology to achieve textiles recovery and reuse for circularity
Lead Research Organisation:
De Montfort University
Department Name: School of Fashion and Textiles
Abstract
Global consumption of textiles continues to increase year on year. This rapid growth of textile consumption demands greater use of resources and enormous amounts of energy and water for producing virgin materials and processing into textiles. This results in the depletion of natural non-renewable resources and contributes significantly to carbon emissions, which is unsustainable. Currently, only a small amount of textiles are reused or recycled, while millions of tonnes of textiles, including a large proportion of blended textiles (made from more than one different fibre type) end up in landfills or are incinerated.
The textile industry is currently working towards transitioning to a circular economy that moves away from the current linear system of take-make-use-dispose. Although, prolonged use and reuse is considered more beneficial than upcycling and recycling, the latter could help reduce the industries negative environmental impact as it could reduce virgin textile fibre production and avoid intense processing within the supply chain. Research is urgently needed to develop technologies for upcycling, recycling, and reuse of waste textiles to achieve textile circularity.
The proposed project is designed to challenge current problems related to the recovery, recycling, and reuse of textiles, to keep valuable resources in-use as long as possible. Advances in biotechnology offers opportunities for the exploration of enzyme-based processing to recover and recycle textile fibres from blended fabrics. The aim of the project is to develop enzyme-based biotechnologies to recover valuable resources from wool blended fabrics, specifically wool/synthetic and wool/bast fibre blends, for recycling and reuse to support textile sectors transition towards circularity. The project will focus on utilising biotechnology to re-manufacture post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste for new applications by using the enzymes protease and transglutaminase to create new surface pattern on fabrics with textural effects and or repair damaged wool fibres for fabric reuse, respectively. Novel enzyme-based biotechnologies will also be developed to separate bast (flax, hemp and nettle), synthetic (nylon, polyester), and wool fibres, from blended fabrics for upcycling bast fibres into cottonised fibres, and recycling synthetic fibres back into fibres. Extracted valuable wool protein polypeptides will be utilised to develop novel added value machine washable wool.
This multidisciplinary research project between De Montfort University and Loughborough University brings together three UK based industry partners with a global reach: a contract upholstery fabric manufacturer, a wool cloth manufacturer, and a wool textile manufacturing and innovation company to ensure project outputs are of direct relevance to various sectors of the industry and enable alignment to sustainable circular development to deliver economic and environmental impact when scaled up, widely contributing to realising the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The textile industry is currently working towards transitioning to a circular economy that moves away from the current linear system of take-make-use-dispose. Although, prolonged use and reuse is considered more beneficial than upcycling and recycling, the latter could help reduce the industries negative environmental impact as it could reduce virgin textile fibre production and avoid intense processing within the supply chain. Research is urgently needed to develop technologies for upcycling, recycling, and reuse of waste textiles to achieve textile circularity.
The proposed project is designed to challenge current problems related to the recovery, recycling, and reuse of textiles, to keep valuable resources in-use as long as possible. Advances in biotechnology offers opportunities for the exploration of enzyme-based processing to recover and recycle textile fibres from blended fabrics. The aim of the project is to develop enzyme-based biotechnologies to recover valuable resources from wool blended fabrics, specifically wool/synthetic and wool/bast fibre blends, for recycling and reuse to support textile sectors transition towards circularity. The project will focus on utilising biotechnology to re-manufacture post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste for new applications by using the enzymes protease and transglutaminase to create new surface pattern on fabrics with textural effects and or repair damaged wool fibres for fabric reuse, respectively. Novel enzyme-based biotechnologies will also be developed to separate bast (flax, hemp and nettle), synthetic (nylon, polyester), and wool fibres, from blended fabrics for upcycling bast fibres into cottonised fibres, and recycling synthetic fibres back into fibres. Extracted valuable wool protein polypeptides will be utilised to develop novel added value machine washable wool.
This multidisciplinary research project between De Montfort University and Loughborough University brings together three UK based industry partners with a global reach: a contract upholstery fabric manufacturer, a wool cloth manufacturer, and a wool textile manufacturing and innovation company to ensure project outputs are of direct relevance to various sectors of the industry and enable alignment to sustainable circular development to deliver economic and environmental impact when scaled up, widely contributing to realising the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Technical Summary
Textiles made from blended fibres have proved difficult for recycling due to different fibre types being intimately blended. Advances in biotechnology offers opportunities for the exploration of enzyme-based processing to recycle textile fibres from blended textiles. Proteases from the group of hydrolases can hydrolyse wool fibres to achieve fibre surface modification, or partial degradation to complete dissolution of wool fibres from wool blended fabrics. If wool fibres are extracted to produce wool polypeptides from wool blended fabrics by enzymatic hydrolysis, the other fibre component could be separated for recycling back into textiles. Enzymes are very specific in their catalytic action, so will only be effective towards a specific fibre type without causing damage to other fibre components that are present in the blend. Extracted wool polypeptides could be grafted back onto the surface of wool fibres to alter its differential frictional effect to achieve machine washable wool.
The project aims to develop enzyme-based biotechnologies to recover valuable resources from wool blended fabrics, specifically wool/synthetic and wool/bast fibre blends, for recycling and reuse to support textile sectors transition towards circularity. The project will focus on utilising biotechnology to re-manufacture post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste by controlled enzymatic processing using protease to create new surface patterns on fabrics with textural effects for reuse. A novel enzyme-based biotechnology will be also be developed to extract valuable polypeptides from wool blended fabrics, to separate synthetic or bast fibres from blended fabrics for their recycling back into fabrics. Added value machine washable wool and cottonised bast fibres including flax, hemp and nettle fibres are to be developed through enzymatic processes. The successful outcomes could support the textile industry transition from a linear system to a circular economy.
The project aims to develop enzyme-based biotechnologies to recover valuable resources from wool blended fabrics, specifically wool/synthetic and wool/bast fibre blends, for recycling and reuse to support textile sectors transition towards circularity. The project will focus on utilising biotechnology to re-manufacture post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste by controlled enzymatic processing using protease to create new surface patterns on fabrics with textural effects for reuse. A novel enzyme-based biotechnology will be also be developed to extract valuable polypeptides from wool blended fabrics, to separate synthetic or bast fibres from blended fabrics for their recycling back into fabrics. Added value machine washable wool and cottonised bast fibres including flax, hemp and nettle fibres are to be developed through enzymatic processes. The successful outcomes could support the textile industry transition from a linear system to a circular economy.
Publications
| Description | Current limitations in textile recycling technologies have resulted in losing valuable resources found in textiles to landfill or incineration. Producing new textile materials is resource intensive, requiring large amounts of energy and water, depleting natural resources, and results in emitting carbon. Equally, once textile products reach end-of-life, they are often landfilled or incinerated, both of which release pollutants. This BBSRC funded project ENZBIOTEX explored enzyme-based biotechnology processes for recycling and reuse of wool/synthetics and wool/bast (flax or hemp) fibre blended fabrics from post-consumer and/or manufacturing waste streams. Key Findings are summarised below. - Enzymatic processes were developed for separating wool blended fabrics into their constituent fibres so that they can be more easily reused. Enzymatic extraction of wool fibre components from wool/flax, and wool/hemp blended fabrics have enabled the recovery of flax and hemp fibres for closed-loop fibre to fibre recycling. Furthermore, a cottonisation process of the recovered flax and hemp fibres offers the potential to be blended with cotton or other fibres in the re-processing into yarn for fabric production. The developed method of fibre recovery adds to the sustainable attributes of bast fibres: flax and hemp which are regarded as sustainable textile fibres due to requiring almost no water or pesticides during cultivation. Recycling and reuse of bast fibres from waste textile materials could contribute towards utilising land for other types of farming, saving energy and water from textile processing. - Enzyme-based biotechnologies were developed to extract textile dyes from waste dyed wool fabrics. Coloured wool fibres were broken down by enzymatic hydrolysis, the undamaged dyes were recovered from the dyed wool fibres and produced in powder form with the potential for re-application for textile coloration by either dyeing or printing. - Bast (flax or hemp) component fibres and polypropylene fibres in fabric form were recovered from wool/bast fibre blended, and wool/polypropylene blended upholstery fabrics through the enzyme processes developed from the project. Recovered bast fabric and polypropylene fabric were layered followed by thermal compression to successfully produce recycled fibre-based composite materials for new use. |
| Exploitation Route | The project outcomes have demonstrated the potential for commercialisation. Further funding and investment are required to scale up the enzyme bioprocess for fibre separation of mixed fibres textile waste materials and establish a supply chain for recycling and reuse of wool blended textile materials. Greater understanding of the quality of virgin bast fibres used to produce textile materials and the correlation with recovered bast fibres needs to be further established for new and existing commercial applications. The UK textile manufacturing sector needs to be engaged for further investigation of dye recovery from waste dyed wool materials and establishing the strategy for the application of the recovered dyes for textile coloration on a commercial scale. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Agriculture Food and Drink Chemicals Construction Education Environment Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Retail Transport Other |
| URL | https://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/iad/team/projects.aspx |
| Description | The novel biological processes developed use enzymes to separate bast fibres or synthetic fibres from wool blended fabrics without causing damage to the recovered fibres due to the enzyme specificity and low temperature used in the processes. Bast fibres are regarded as sustainable fibres for textiles due to requiring almost no water or pesticides during cultivation. Recycling and reuse of bast fibres from waste textile materials could contribute towards saving land for other types of farming, reducing cotton demands, saving energy and water from processing, and result in a reduction of CO2 emissions. The outcomes from the project has demonstrated the possibilities to recycle and reuse post-consumer or waste of wool/bast fibre blended upholstery fabrics by separating the individual fibre components and re-processing bast fibres back to fabric production, whereas the synthetic fibres recovered from waste wool/synthetic blended fabrics offer potential reuse. In addition, the project demonstrated the potential to recover the dyes from waste wool or wool blend fabrics and reuse the recovered dye for the coloration of undyed textile substrates. The findings could support textile industry transition a circular system. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic |
| Description | Exhibition of Recycling of waste wool blended fabrics through enzymatic separation of component fibres and recovery of dyes for reuse at the Future Fabrics Expo 2024 at Magazine London on 25th - 26th June 2024 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Future Fabrics Expo 2024 in London provided a platform for cutting edge innovators who are developing solutions for the fashion industry of tomorrow. Our innovation developed from the project among about 50 innovations were curated in the Innovation Hub, a space which platforms the next generation of sustainable materials solutions and advanced technologies poised to transform our materials landscape. Enzyme-based biotechnology processes were explored for recycling and reuse of wool and wool/bast fibre blended fabrics from post-consumer and/or manufacturing waste streams. Enzyme-based biotechnologies were developed to extract dyes from waste dyed wool fabrics. The wool fibres were disintegrated by enzymatic hydrolysis, the undamaged dyes were recovered from the dyed wool fibres and produced in powder form with the potential for re-application for textile coloration: dyeing and printing. Enzymatic extraction of wool fibre components from wool/flax or wool/hemp blended fabrics have also enabled the recovery of flax and hemp fibres for closed loop fibre to fibre recycling. Furthermore, cottonisation of the recovered flax and hemp fibres offers the potential to be blended with cotton or other fibres in the re-processing for fabric production. Adding to the sustainable attributes of bast fibres which are regarded as sustainable fibres for textiles due to requiring almost no water or pesticides during cultivation, recycling and reuse of bast fibres from waste textile materials could contribute towards saving land for other types of farming, saving energy and water from processing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://thesustainableangle.org/future-fabrics-expo-2024/ |
| Description | Exhibition of Textile Engineering and Materials Research on bast fibres, laser assisted dyeing, enzymatic coloration, recycling and reuse of waste wool blended fabrics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The display of research outcomes with prototypes at Sustainability ROX Sustainable Design on 5th March 2024 at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK raised great interest in innovative technologies, sustainable textiles and recycling/reuse of waste textile materials towards circularity to the event participants especially from postgraduate students, professional practitioners, manufacturers and business. This activity is leading to the further collaborations with manufacturers in the fields of enzymatic coloration, bast fibres and recycling and reuses of waste textiles. Awareness of the innovative technology and successful industrial collaboration to a wider audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://sustainabilityrox.com/design/ |