TEXTILES.ORG
A demo unit in Japan successfully produced BHET, the base monomer of a 100% recycled polyester, from “several tens of [metric] tons” of postconsumer textile waste from Europe, an April release noted.
The technology, called Rewind® PET, has already been commercialized for recycling PET packaging, including food-contact source material. This textile-to-textile test of several tons of postconsumer PET is one of the first of its kind under representative industrial conditions.
“With Rewind PET, IFPEN is realizing more than 10 years of research to put chemical recycling at the service of an ambitious circular economy,” says Pierre-Franck Chevet, president and CEO of IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN), a public research, innovation and training organization in the fields of energy, mobility and the environment.
The test was carried out in the Axens, IFPEN and JEPLAN semi-industrial demonstration unit, which has a capacity 1,000 metric tons (1,102 U.S. tons) per year, operated by JEPLAN in Japan. A commercial plant would be able to produce 150–200 metric kilotons (165,347–220,462 U.S. tons) annually. The postconsumer textiles were sorted and prepared in France.
The material was to be converted next into polyester yarns, fabrics and garments.
Read Specialty Fabrics Review to follow our continuing coverage of research into textile recycling, such as in our Swatches section, which appears every month.