BIOCOAT
Development of bio-based textile finishes for high performance textiles.
DURATION //
Nov 30, 2020
//
Jun 29, 2023
Coatings and finishes are widely used in textile industry, to make products more useful – more water resistant, antimicrobial, faster drying, and many more. Majority of the textile finishes today are made from non-renewable resources and cannot biodegrade in nature. If a biodegradable fabric is coated in a synthetic finish - it won’t biodegrade anymore. If a bio-based textile is finished using a conventional material - it is not fully bio-based. Therefore the finish is an important part of a final product, and should be taken into account when developing biobased textile products. Inspired by the BIOTEXFUTURE vision of sustainable bio-based textile industry, this project focuses on finishes and coatings used in textiles.
The aim of the project is to replace conventional fossil-based textile finishes with the bio-based ones.
BIOCOAT VISUALIZED
In this project, two conventional finishes are selected in collaboration with the industrial partners as the project focus. The project uses nature-derived molecules called ‘peptides’ and nature-inspired innovative process (called ‘directed evolution’) to try to come up with a bio-based and biodegradable material that can replace the conventional chemistry used in textiles today. If successful, the project will demonstrate the feasibility of using this approach to replace conventional textile finishes.
The demonstration will be done on two selected product types, but the learnings are intended to be relevant for other products and textile sectors.
