Using inputs recovered from polycotton textile scrap, the PET chips can be turned into a texturized yarn for product development.
Selenis, a global supplier of sustainable specialty polyester solutions headquartered in Portugal, says it has successfully produced recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) chips from terephthalic acid provided by Danville, Virginia-based textile-to-textile recycler Circ.
According to Selenis, the chip was produced through a multibatch campaign at Selenis’ pilot plant in San-Giorgio, Italy. Using inputs recovered from polycotton textile scrap, the PET chip has been transformed into draw texturized yarn (DTY) and will be used in product development as Circ builds additional capsule launches. Selenis says it is building on the success of this initial partnership phase by committing to work toward an offtake partnership in support of Circ’s first industrial facility.
“The monomer synthesis performed similarly to virgin terephthalic acid,” Eduardo Santos, head of corporate strategy at Selenis, says in a news release. “These results are a promising indication of the consistent quality of Circ’s monomer output and future commercial success. As this partnership with Circ aligns with our mission and sustainability goals in the textile world, we look forward to building upon this work and supporting Circ’s commercial production trials in the future.”
Selenis says its collaboration with Circ reinforces its sustainable mission, which relies on employing the company’s “profound knowledge of polymers, formulations and processing to partner with customers in developing eco-friendly solutions and commitment to creating opportunities.”
Highly focused on sustainability, Selenis says its collaboration with Circ enables it to develop products with purified terephthalic acid (PTA) using recovered terephthalic acid from Circ and bio-monoethylene glycol (Bio-MEG) from second-generation biobased sources.
Circ says its chief goal is to eliminate plastic waste, reduce carbon footprint and conserve valuable resources by enabling the transformation of scrap into new, high-quality products over and over again.
“By working with the Selenis strategic and pilot plant manufacturing teams, we demonstrated the quality of Circ monomers and confirmed its performance as a like-for-like replacement of virgin monomers in synthesizing rPET from blended textile waste,” says Kaushik Vashee, senior vice president of manufacturing at Circ. “The Selenis team’s commitment to realizing the pilot trials has been instrumental in demonstrating the value of our recycled monomers.”
Circ claims its recycling technology is the only platform to successfully separate polycotton blended textile scrap and recover both cellulosic and synthetic fibers.
Source: https://www.recyclingtoday.com/