Chemical Recycling for Technical Textiles
ResearchAndMarkets.com – an online platform that provides market and research data from publishers, consultants, and analysts – has added the “Editorial: Chemical Recycling for Tomorrow’s Technical Textiles” report from Textiles Intelligence Ltd.. As described, the report is based on a keynote presentation given by Gherzi Textil Organisation during the 63rd Dornbirn Global Fiber Congress (Dornbirn-GFC) in September 2024.
According to that information, the chemical recycling of synthetic fibers, primarily polyester, is set to have a major impact on the textile industry until 2030. “As well as the chemical recycling of synthetic fibers, the report examines the key trends impacting the textile industry, the rapid growth of the market for second-hand apparel, and forecasts of fiber consumption and associated production figures for 2026,” ResearchAndMarkets.com informed. Considerable amounts of new recycled content would start to enter production cycles for technical textiles and the apparel market as significant chemical recycling operations come on stream. “Notable among such operations will be those for turning polyester and other synthetic fiber waste back into polymers and back further into monomers,” the market research store gave account. Four major methods for turning recycled polyester and other synthetic fiber waste back into monomers have been identified: enzymatic recovery, glycolysis, hydrolysis, and methanolysis.
Furthermore, several companies were making “impressive strides in the development of these methods.” As reported, in the field of methanolysis, Eastman’s technology would be capable of breaking down hard-to-recycle polyester waste into the monomer building blocks for producing polyester; the monomers could be used repeatedly without compromising performance. “In the field of glycolysis, Syre is being supported by an offtake agreement with H&M Group and is preparing for its first two Giga scale textile-to-textile recycling plants. In the field of hydrolysis, the Far Eastern New Century (FENC) has a commercial recycling plant in operation with a capacity of 600,000 tons. And in the field of enzymatic recovery, Carbios is constructing a plant which is expected to start delivering significant quantities of recycled feedstocks in 2026 and the company is developing a licensing model for its recycling technology which is already bearing fruit.”
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 1/2025, Page 19, Photo: VIGE.co / stock.adobe.com)
