BREAKING FREE from the Cellulose Enigma

By Geoff Fisher, European Editor, IFJ

an-made cellulosic fibers (MMCFs), which are most commonly derived from wood, account for a growing share – forecast at 8% in 2030 – of global fiber production, behind synthetic fibers, such as polyester, and cotton. With environmental awareness among consumers increasing, these bio-based materials are being used in a wide range of applications.

However, the European cellulosic fibers industry has been overshadowed in recent months by Swedish company Renewcell’s filing for bankruptcy in February after failing to secure sufficient long-term funding from its existing lenders and investors, including its biggest shareholder, H&M, to continue operations. Several bids have been received for the business and its assets.

Founded by innovators from Stockholm’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2012, Renewcell has developed patented chemical technology to recycle used cotton textiles and post-industrial waste into a premium-priced feedstock – a dissolving pulp called Circulose – for producing yarns such as viscose and lyocell, usually in blends with other fibers.

The company went public in November 2020, opening the world’s first industrial-scale chemical textile-to-textile recycling facility in November 2022, in Sundsvall, Sweden, with an investment of US$91 million.

Renewcell launched a strategic review in November 2023, after it emerged that demand for its recycled raw material was much weaker than expected. The company then managed to raise US$10 million in short-term funding.

Although it had major customers, including H&M, Inditex, Levi’s, PVH and Bestseller, to which it supplied Circulose from the items the brands sent in, Re- newcell reduced its production capacity and slashed its workforce by 25%.

According to analysts, Renewcell’s bankruptcy has dealt a blow to efforts to introduce new, more sustainable materials to the market at scale. With overall demand for circular fashion still growing and new extended producer responsibility regulations coming into force, particularly in the European Union (EU), the rest of the textile-to-textile recycling industry is watching the situation carefully and hoping to learn lessons.

Mounting Losses

Meanwhile, Finnish fiber supplier Spinnova has launched a cost-cutting review and restructured its management team following disappointing financial results for 2023, which saw revenues tumble and losses mounting.

The company’s results show that revenue fell to €10.6 million last year, com- pared with €24.3 million in 2022, while operating losses increased from €13.1 million to €20.9 million, and investment dropped to €9 million from €17 million.

Spinnova’s mechanical technology produces textile fibers from multiple raw materials from wood to leather, textile, agricultural, food industry and beverage waste, without using harmful chemicals. The Spinnova fibers are biodegradable and circular, and the company is committed to using only sustainable raw materials such as FSC-certified wood and waste.

Earlier, Spinnova signed a letter of intent with Brazilian pulp and paper ing wood-based Spinnova fiber opened in 2023 in Jyväskylä, Finland. The Woodspin factory acts as an industrial demonstration of Spinnova’s technology and Suzano’s textile microfibrillated cellulose technology and is used for qualifying the process and fiber output to support the investment decision for the new facility.

Potential Growth

Amidst this disheartening financial environment, the fifth Cellulose Fibres Conference held in March in Cologne, had its own challenges, including industrial action in the form of airline, airport and public transport strikes in Germany, and a short power cut on the second morning manufacturer Suzano for a potential new production facility for wood-based Spinnova fiber. Spinnova and its partners will deliver the fiber production technology to Suzano, which will be the owner and operator of the facility.

The preliminary annual target capacity of the new facility is 20,000 tonnes of fiber, and it is likely to be located near an existing Suzano pulp mill. The pre-engineering phase is expected to commence in the second half of 2024.

Spinnova and Suzano have been joint venture partners since 2020 in Woodspin, whose first production facility produc- of the event followed by a fire alarm test.

Nevertheless, the conference, organized by Germany’s Nova-Institute, attracted 214 participants and 23 exhibitors from 27 countries. Around 40 presentations demonstrated the growth and potential of the cellulose fibers industry, supported by the policy framework to reduce single-use plastic products, such as the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) in Europe.

Leading international experts introduced new technologies for the recycling of cellulose-rich raw materials and gave insights into circular economy practices in the fields of textiles, hygiene, construction and packaging.

Nova-Institute’s Asta Partanen, who was responsible for the content of the conference, said: “We received very positive feedback from the participants for the focus on cellulose fibers, the in-depth content and the good atmosphere as well as the many new contacts along the entire value chain.”

Backward Integration

While fashion brands may not yet be quite ready to make the leap to adopting circular textiles, Łucja Wanicka of AFRY Management Consulting, Finland, explained that the MMCF industry has undergone rapid transformation in response to the growing demand for more sustainable fibers.

Since the early 2000s, and particularly over the past decade, there have been several new players entering the MMCF market, especially in China and South America, with existing players defending their positions by expanding capacities and integrating vertically into the largest manufacturing cost component for their fibers: dissolving wood pulp (DWP).

DWP has now been transformed from a specialty to a commodity product, she said, with wood costs and scale becom- ing major drivers of competitiveness. And with DWP typically accounting for around 40% of the manufacturing costs of viscose, backward integration has been key for controlling costs. “There is increasing interest in using textile waste and agricultural residues as feedstocks for MMCFs; however, a technology gap still exists,” said Wanicka.

With the global population set to rise from eight billion to more than 10 billion by 2059, per capita fiber demand will grow. However, there are environmental concerns associated with increased consumption of synthetic fibers and cotton, noted Dr Sascha Schriver of the Institut für Textiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

MMCFs offer the potential to fill the cellulose gap, but with growing demand for renewable and sustainable bio-based fibers, alternative feedstocks and new technologies for their production are needed.

Biodegradation Enigma

The biodegradability of cellulosic fibers offers the potential to avoid polluting the soil, river, lake and ocean environments with microplastics, although biodegradation of MMCFs is a “controversial” issue, admitted Jo-Ann Innerlohinger of Lenzing.

Discussing the biodegradability of cellulosic fibers through environmental and laboratory testing, Dr. Miriam Weber, a marine biologist and director of Hydra Marine Sciences, Germany, noted that a geotextile, which has to last for around three years to stabilize the ground, needs to be made from a slowly biodegrading material, whereas a wet wipe, in use for some 10 seconds, should be made from fast or very fast biodegrading materials.

Addressing the “cellulose enigma,” in which cellulose fibers have been seen to accumulate in the environment, she pointed out the influence of processing and treatments, such as cross-linking, bleaching, dyeing or antimicrobials, which could reduce the biodegradation rate or even hinder or “mask” the biodegradability of these fibers.

Plastic-Free Wipes

While consumer studies continue to demonstrate the need for wipes, based largely on convenience and transportability, the high level of plastics – typically 70-80% polyester with 20-30% viscose – has put these singleuse products under regulatory pressure, such as the EU’s SUPD.

Outlining biodegradable and compostable wipes and absorbent hygiene products, Rahul Bansal, head of the global nonwovens business of Birla Cellulose, India, explained that a number of plastic-free options have been developed, using various blends of viscose, lyocell, cotton and wood pulp, and modifications to wetlaid, airlaid and hydroentanglement technologies.

Cellulosic fibers, especially cotton but also MMCFs, can be turned into a dissolving pulp-like feedstock for the production of new cellulosic fibers.

Plastic-free products that are both biodegradable and compostable are already available, but major brands have been slow to adopt these. “Regulators are pushing for the shift to plastic-free singleuse products,” he said. “Change is inevitable; either we as an industry drive this change or we will be pushed to change –or perish.”

Closed-Loop Recycling

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, only 13% of all clothing is currently recycled and just 1% is recycled in a closed-loop system in which materials are recycled in similar or higher-value applications, noted Heli Kangas of Valmet Technologies, Finland. The recycling of post-consumer textiles, and therefore less reliance on virgin materials, represents a major challenge to the existing disposal methods of landfill and incineration.

While the overconsumption of textiles during the past three decades – largely due to the fast fashion industry that relies on cheap, disposable clothing that is produced quickly in low-wage countries and sold at low prices, then discarded after use – has led to growing amounts of waste, used textiles have been recognized as an important and plentiful material resource, although the proliferation of blends presents its own challenges.

Cellulosic fibers, especially cotton but also MMCFs, can be turned into a dissolving pulp-like feedstock for the pro- duction of new cellulosic fibers, which offers an opportunity to introduce circularity into a currently mostly linear textile economy.

Michael Hummel of Finland’s Aalto University said textile waste is a multimaterial mix of different fibers and additives such as dyes and finishes. Pretreatment procedures such as bleaching are needed to separate the fibers and remove these undesired components. He presented strategies to recycle dyed cellulose waste to produce spun-dyed fibers that can be recycled without any loss in the dye intensity.

The production of cellulosic fabrics from agricultural waste and industrial by-products was again a feature of the Cologne conference, with presentations on the use of banana plant pseudostem, jute from imported coffee sacks, residual industrial hemp and other bast fibers, biomass waste streams, such as lignocellulosic waste from the food industry, and even used banknotes.

Innovation Award

For the fourth time, Nova-Institute presented the Cellulose Fibre Innovation of the Year award at the conference. Sponsored by GIG Karasek, Austria, the award recognizes applications and innovations that lead the way in the transition of the industry toward sustainable fibers.

The winning entry, voted on by conference delegates, was the Straw FlexiDress by DITF and Vretena, both from Germany – a knitted garment using HighPerCell filaments based on unbleached straw pulp.

Second place was the Honext FR-B board from Honext Material, Spain, a flame-retardant board made from 100% upcycled waste fibers from the paper industry, while TreeToTextile, Sweden was third with its “new generation of biobased and resource-efficient fiber.”

Next year’s Cellulose Fibres Conference will be held from March 12-13, 2025, again in Cologne and online. For further information, visit www.cellulose-fibres.eu

Geoff Fisher is the European editor of International Fiber Journal and editorial director of UK-based Textile Media Services, a B2B publisher of news and market reports on transport textiles, medical textiles, smart materials and emerging markets. He has more than 35 years of experience covering fibers and technical textiles. He can be contacted at gfisher@textilemedia.com or +44 7803 718443.