Finland: Future Flagship Plant for Textile Fiber Regeneration
Circular fashion and textile technology group Infinited Fiber Company intends to build a flagship factory in Finland to produce regenerated textile fibers for the global market.
According to the company, its patented technology transforms any cellulose-rich raw material – including discarded textiles, used cardboard or rice or wheat straw – into cellulose carbamate fibers with the look and feel of cotton. It is envisaged that the new factory will have an annual capacity of 30,000 metric tons and will use post-consumer textile waste as feedstock.
As reported, the total investment for setting up the flagship plant is estimated at around 220 million Euro. According to Infinited Fiber Company, they will decide upon the location in September. Moreover, the company expects that the future facility will be operational in 2024. Austrian-based international technology group Andritz will be a key supplier of the process equipment for the new plant; both companies have worked together to carry out trials since the end of 2019.
Finnish waste management company Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy (LSJH), owned by 17 municipalities in South-West Finland, will supply raw material to Infinited Fiber Company’s flagship plant from the full-scale textile waste refinement plant being prepared in the Turku region of Finland. LSJH’s plant will process all the end-of-life textiles of Finnish households in cooperation with other municipality-owned waste management companies.
The plant’s entire output is intended for export, Infinited Fiber Company informed in a press release. It hopes supply agreements with several global fashion and textile brands will be in place before the end of 2021, securing the factory’s entire output capacity for several years.
The process
Infinited Fiber Company currently operates pilot facilities in Espoo and Valkeakoski, Finland, with a combined nominal capacity of 150 metric tons/annum. “The magic in our process happens when urea reacts with the cellulose, creating a carbamate functionality that gives the new fiber unique qualities like its soft and natural look and feels superior dye uptake, and naturally occurring antimicrobial properties,” the Finnish enterprise informed on its homepage. The technology would cover all steps – from the pre-treatment of the raw material to the finished, ready-to-ship textile fibers with the brand name “Infinna”. Toxic substances are not used.
As underlined, the technology can be retrofitted cost-effectively to any pulp and viscose fiber lines in existing factories.
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2021, Page 22, Photo: ErikaWittlieb / pixabay.com)
