What’s New in the World of Cel­lu­lose Fibre and Biosynthetics?

The well-estab­lished annu­al ​“Cel­lu­lose Fibres Con­fer­ence”, organ­ised by nova-Insti­tute, is pre­par­ing for a new round in 2025 with a broad­er focus.

The tex­tile industry is con­stantly on the lookout for sus­tain­able solu­tions, as they are urgently needed to meet the EU’s cli­mate change tar­gets. The fash­ion industry has a large CO₂ foot­print (10 % of total glob­al emis­sions), which needs to be reduced in favour of the Green Deal require­ments. Tex­tile waste man­age­ment and micro­plastic pol­lu­tion caused by wash­ing syn­thet­ic clothes (ori­gin­at­ing from fossil-based fibres such as poly­es­ter) are par­tic­u­larly affected by this. A (re)turn to more sus­tain­able solu­tions is needed. The pro­por­tion of renew­able fibres must be increased. How can this be achieved? By using car­bon above the ground derived by bio­mass, CO₂ and recycling.

Cel­lu­lose Fibres

For cel­lu­lose fibres in tex­tiles, this means that the raw mater­i­als can be ori­gin­ated from wood from sus­tain­able forest man­age­ment as well as all types of cel­lu­losic waste streams from agri­cul­ture, cot­ton pro­cessing waste, tex­tile waste and paper waste (bio­mass). Even car­bon emis­sions from the air offer raw mater­i­al for the next gen­er­a­tion of cir­cu­lar fibres.

The chal­lenge of tex­tile recyc­ling is con­stantly chan­ging due to the fre­quent use of mixed fibres. The new tech­no­lo­gies for pro­duc­tion of new fibres from the cel­lu­losic part of the tex­tile waste offers a ​“fibre-to-fibre” solu­tion for the industry in line with the EU tex­tile strategy.

The chal­lenge of recyc­ling textiles

The recyc­ling of tex­tiles to new cel­lu­lose fibres is an import­ant factor to be enhanced at a broad­er level: util­ising exist­ing resources is an intel­li­gent strategy. How­ever, the tex­tile industry cur­rently uses only 1 % for so-called fibre-to-fibre recyc­ling, due to sev­er­al obstacles that need to be over­come. The share of recycled fibres in tex­tiles will increase due to new reg­u­la­tions from Brus­sels and the neces­sary logist­ics and tech­no­lo­gies need to be in place to recycle tex­tiles on a large scale. The inad­equate reg­u­la­tion of tex­tile waste man­age­ment is a sig­ni­fic­ant factor con­trib­ut­ing to the loss of much of this mater­i­al due to incin­er­a­tion. Anoth­er crit­ic­al aspect is the chal­lenge of recyc­ling of blen­ded-fibre tex­tiles. This prompts the ques­tion of what new and advanced tech­no­lo­gies are avail­able for pro­cessing blen­ded tex­tile waste. 

Bio­syn­thet­ics – a new top­ic on the rise

The increase in tex­tile demand in recent dec­ades is sig­ni­fic­ant, with an increase of 460 % between 1960 and 2020. To meet this demand, and at the same time offer the industry sus­tain­able solu­tions, it is neces­sary to con­sider all sus­tain­able man-made fibres that can be scaled up in near future. This area can be the bio­syn­thet­ics. This cat­egory includes bio-based poly­mer as well as CO₂-based poly­mer fibres for tex­tiles. There are numer­ous options for this, includ­ing poly­es­ter fibres (such as PLA, PEF or PHA) and poly­ol­efin fibres (bio-based or CO₂-based PE/PP) and bio-based PA fibres from castor oil. These also include sev­er­al car­bon cap­ture innov­a­tions emer­ging with­in the fash­ion, appar­el, and tex­tile industry. While the cur­rent share is small (1 %), it is expec­ted to grow sig­ni­fic­antly in the future.

Tech­no­lo­gies are being developed con­tinu­ously and there is great interest in this new facet of the con­fer­ence. This prom­ising area is being explored and dis­cussed with lead­ing experts. 

The nova-insti­tute, organ­iser of the con­fer­ence, is intro­du­cing the new them­at­ic branch on bio­syn­thet­ics in response to the grow­ing demand for sus­tain­able tex­tile fibres. In light of this, the con­fer­ence will host its first ses­sions on bio­syn­thet­ics in 2025.

What does policy have to do with this?

As every year, the con­fer­ence will also focus on cur­rent polit­ic­al devel­op­ments. In 2022, the EU Com­mis­sion has pub­lished the ​“EU Strategy for Sus­tain­able and Cir­cu­lar Tex­tiles”, but the pro­pos­al for the ​“Green Claims Dir­ect­ive” (2023) is also rel­ev­ant for the tex­tile industry. The con­fer­ence pro­gram will focus on the impact of the reg­u­la­tions on the day-to-day busi­ness of the industry.

Solu­tions and visions

The sus­tain­able tex­tile industry of the future will ideally be based on a found­a­tion of cot­ton fibres and fast-grow­ing cel­lu­lose fibres, which will be strongly sup­por­ted by bio- and CO₂-based syn­thet­ic fibres – so called bio­syn­thet­ics – and high recyc­ling rates for all types of fibres. This com­bin­a­tion can even­tu­ally replace most fossil-based syn­thet­ic fibres. Industry col­lab­or­a­tion is key to achieve this. The ​“Cel­lu­lose Fibres Con­fer­ence 2025” provides a unique oppor­tun­ity for key play­ers to foster net­works, col­lab­or­a­tion and innovation.

The con­fer­ence in a nutshell

In 2024, 214 par­ti­cipants enjoyed two con­fer­ence days in Cologne or online. The high­lights were 40 present­a­tions with lively pan­el dis­cus­sions after­wards, the innov­a­tion award ​“Cel­lu­lose Fibre Innov­a­tion of the Year”, an exhib­i­tion, the poster ses­sion and plenty of net­work­ing pos­sib­il­it­ies. All of this will be repeated in 2025, includ­ing new top­ics, new speak­ers and new inputs. The ​“Cel­lu­lose Fibres Con­fer­ence 2025” will again cov­er the entire value chain, from ligno­cel­lu­lose, chem­ic­al pulp, cel­lu­lose fibres such as ray­on, vis­cose, mod­al or lyo­cell and new devel­op­ments to a wide range of applic­a­tions, e.g. tex­tiles from renew­able fibres, non­wovens such as wet wipes and com­pos­ites, hygiene and pack­aging. The con­fer­ence will fur­ther address top­ics like cir­cu­lar eco­nomy, fibre-to-fibre recyc­ling and sus­tain­able car­bon cycles, bio­syn­thet­ics, new tech­no­lo­gies and feedstocks.

Call for Abstracts

Enter­prises and research insti­tutes are invited to con­trib­ute to the pro­gram and present their innov­at­ive products, tech­no­lo­gies or devel­op­ments. Dead­line for sub­mis­sion is 30 Septem­ber 2024.

cel​lu​lose​-fibres​.eu/​c​a​l​l​-​f​o​r​-​a​b​s​t​racts

Call for Innovations

The con­fer­ence will con­clude with the innov­a­tion award ​“Cel­lu­lose Fibre Innov­a­tion 2025” whose win­ner can join the ranks of amaz­ing innov­a­tions. The dead­line for innov­a­tion sub­mis­sions is 30 Novem­ber 2024. The innov­a­tion award ​“Cel­lu­lose Fibre Innov­a­tion of the Year 2025” is sponsored by GIG Karasek.

cel​lu​lose​-fibres​.eu/​a​w​a​r​d​-​a​p​p​l​i​c​ation

Call for posters

The poster exhib­i­tion is highly anti­cip­ated event at the con­fer­ence. Poster sub­mis­sions are open until 31 Janu­ary 2025.

cel​lu​lose​-fibres​.eu/​c​a​l​l​-​f​o​r​-​p​o​sters

Spon­sor­ship – Exhib­i­tion – Advert­ise­ment: Ser­vice Packages

The con­fer­ence will be accom­pan­ied by a trade exhib­i­tion and offers com­pan­ies a wide range of spon­sor­ship oppor­tun­it­ies to max­im­ise vis­ib­il­ity and impact at the conference.

Fur­ther inform­a­tion on spon­sor­ing is avail­able at cel​lu​lose​-fibres​.eu/​s​p​o​n​s​oring

Key Account Man­age­ment
Guido Müller
guido.​mueller@​nova-​institut.​de

Con­fer­ence registration

The regis­tra­tion fee is 1095 EUR (excl. 19 % VAT) for both days and 745 EUR (excl. 19 % VAT) for the vir­tu­al option.

Regis­tra­tion options are avail­able via cel​lu​lose​-fibres​.eu/​r​e​g​i​s​t​r​ation

euro​parl​.europa​.eu/​t​o​p​i​c​s​/​e​n​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​2​0​2​0​1​2​0​8​S​T​O​9​3​3​2​7​/​t​h​e​-​i​m​p​a​c​t​-​o​f​-​t​e​x​t​i​l​e​-​p​r​o​d​u​c​t​i​o​n​-​a​n​d​-​w​a​s​t​e​-​o​n​-​t​h​e​-​e​n​v​i​r​o​n​m​e​n​t​-​i​n​f​o​g​r​a​phics

envir​on​ment​.ec​.europa​.eu/​p​u​b​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​t​e​x​t​i​l​e​s​-​s​t​r​a​t​e​gy_en
envir​on​ment​.ec​.europa​.eu/​p​u​b​l​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​p​r​o​p​o​s​a​l​-​d​i​r​e​c​t​i​v​e​-​g​r​e​e​n​-​c​l​a​i​ms_en

euro​parl​.europa​.eu/​t​o​p​i​c​s​/​e​n​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​/​2​0​1​8​0​3​0​5​S​T​O​9​9​0​0​3​/​r​e​d​u​c​i​n​g​-​c​a​r​b​o​n​-​e​m​i​s​s​i​o​n​s​-​e​u​-​t​a​r​g​e​t​s​-​a​n​d​-​p​o​l​icies