The largest manufacturer of Textile Machinery in the WORLD

Chemical Fiber

FILAMENT

Technical Packaging Textiles with 35% Less CO 2 Emissions

By using a high share of recycled content in its Evolon ® materials, Freudenberg Performance Materials now offers technical packaging textiles with a carbon footprint decreased by 35%. An independent LCA study showed additional benefits such as energy resource savings and lower water use. Furthermore, Evolon® fabrics provide sustainability benefits over the packaging entire life cycle thanks to high end performance and durability.

By replacing virgin PET with recycled PET, the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of Evolon® packaging textile materials decreased by 35%. This is the result of a study by an independent

LCA and eco-design consultancy firm, which made a Cradle-to-Gate assessment of several Evolon® products using virgin PET or recycled PET. The study was finalized in 2022 and conducted according to the principles of ISO 14040/ ISO 14044 standards, following the recommendations of the Product Environmental Footprint and the Circular Footprint Formula.

The study highlighted additional significant benefits on other criteria such as lower water use, reduced emissions into water, lower ozone formation, as well as important savings of minerals, metals and energy carrier resources. Last but not least, Freudenberg has identified the highest priority areas of work to decrease the material’s CO2 emissions further on.

Sustainability Over the Entire Packaging Life Cycle

Evolon® microfilament textiles have a small carbon footprint because their manufacturing process uses low CO 2 energy sources. The fabrics are lightweight and can be reused throughout entire production programs, e.g. of a car model when it is about the automotive industry. Furthermore, the new Evolon® RE fabrics contain up to 85% of recycled PET which is produced in-house out of post-consumer PET bottles.

Evolon® textiles are suitable for reusable technical packaging, which eliminate the use of thousands of disposable packaging materials. Evolon® fabrics offer scratch-free, lintfree, high-end surface protection for molded plastic parts, painted parts and other sensitive industrial and automotive parts during transport. This contributes to lowering the scrap rate of parts and provide both financial and ecological benefits. By using Evolon ® reusable packaging to transport highly sensitive parts, customers can increase their efficiency and save resources.

www.evolon.freudenberg-pm.com/en

For details on how to submit your company’s technology for consideration as a “Technology Spotlight” in IFJ, contact Ken Norberg at ken@ifj.com or +1 202.682.2022.

Notes

New Study to Explore Upcycling Microfibers Released from Laundering Clothes

Xeros Technology has partnered with the University of Surrey (UK) to jointly fund pioneering research to upcycle microfibers captured from laundering clothes into a useful, and valuable carbon material.

Microfibers are defined as tiny “threads,” defined as smaller than 5mm, that break off from garments through the everyday acts of cleaning and wearing our clothes. Every year more than half a million tons of microfibers are released into the world’s oceans simply from washing our clothes. Research shows that microfibers from synthetic textiles (known as microplastics) are the biggest source of microplastic pollution in our oceans.

In order to address this significant environmental problem, Xeros Technology developed a washing machine filtration device, XFilter, which captures the microfibers and prevents them from being released into our oceans.

XFilter lasts the lifetime of a washing machine and allows users to place the captured microfibers directly into their bin to be disposed of with other household waste. Microfiber waste from filtration is a complex material to recycle within existing recycling infrastructure: not only are the microfibers often mixed materials, but they also

ANDRITZ to Supply SulfoLoop Plant to New Suzano Mill in Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil

ANDRITZ has received an order from Brazilian pulp producer Suzano to deliver a SulfoLoop concentrated sulfuric acid plant for its new pulp mill that Suzano is building in the municipality of Ribas do Rio Pardo, Brazil. The pulp mill, delivered by ANDRITZ, is in the construction phase with start-up scheduled for the second half of 2024.

The sulfuric acid plant will have the capacity to produce 153 tons of commercial grade (>97%) sulfuric acid per day from the pulp mill’s concentrated odorous gases and elemental sulfur – thus making the mill completely self-sufficient in sulfuric acid and recycling sulfur from the waste streams. The ANDRITZ SulfoLoop solution is based on the Wetgas Sulfuric Acid (WSA) technology for converting wet, sulfur-rich gases and elemental sulfur into sulfuric acid.

The sulfuric acid mill will help the new Suzano mill in Ribas do Rio Pardo to control the sodium and sulfur (Na/S) balance and the sulfidity of the pulp mill. Also, the resource-efficiency of the mill will be improved because less sulfate needs to be discharged due to the optimized Na/S balance. An added advantage is that there is no need for hazardous contain captured dirt and soil. This is why Xeros have teamed up the University of Surrey – to accelerative research into improved methods to permanently reduce this continued pollution build-up in the future. www.surrey.ac.uk sulfuric acid transport to the mill, which results in a major reduction in the truck transportation volume. The sulfuric acid plant also meets very strict air emission limits and therefore brings a significant improvement to the overall footprint of the new Suzano plant in Ribas do Rio Pardo. www.andritz.com

Led by Dr. Duyar, the team from the University of Surrey and North Carolina State University have developed a new method specifically designed to upcycle textile micro/nano fibers shed during the washing and drying of clothes. The method produces clean hydrogen and solid carbon nanomaterials as a by-product.