As pressure mounts on sustainable fashion to find alternatives to cotton and wood-based cellulose sources notorious for their water use, land intensity, and ecological footprint, researchers from Chalmers University of Technology have evaluated various agricultural residues—including oat husks, wheat straw, and pulp from potatoes and sugar beets — as raw material for dissolving pulp, the feedstock used in producing fibres like viscose and lyocell.
In a recent study published in the scientific journal RSC Sustainability, the researchers highlighted two standouts: oat husks and wheat straw. These materials, often discarded or burned, were processed using soda pulping—a gentler chemical process that eliminates the need for sulphur compounds and reduces overall complexity. The resulting cellulose was then bleached to textile-grade purity. Lab-scale success was modelled at industrial scale, and a full life-cycle analysis followed.
THE RESULTS were striking. Wheat straw produced more pulp and, despite higher chemical inputs, had a lower environmental impact than oat husks.
- Both outperformed conventional cotton. Soda pulping was felt to be a key advantage: it’s less polluting, more cost-efficient, and better suited to processing low-grade agricultural biomass.
- This discovery could significantly ease the industry’s reliance on cotton and virgin wood while giving value to agri-waste. With pressure mounting on forests and cotton fields, tapping into farm leftovers may be one of the few truly scalable ways to expand the world’s sustainable fibre supply.
- This also aligns directly with UN Sustainable Development Goals — particularly those related to responsible consumption, climate action, and innovation.
TEAM & FUNDING: The research received financial support from Vinnova and the Industrial Graduate School Resource-smart Processes under Bioinnovation (2021-0923), with additional funding from TreeToTextile AB, and IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute at Bioinnovation’s industrial graduate school Resource-Smart Processes, and Chalmers University of Technology, with support also from Stora Enso.
- BioInnovation is a strategic innovation programme founded by Skogsindustrierna, IKEM and TEKO.
WHAT THEY SAID:
You can make textile pulp from certain agricultural waste products. This is an important step towards being able to create textiles from waste products instead of using cotton, which isn’t climate-friendly, or wood, a material that we want to use for so many things while also needing to preserve it for the benefit of the climate.
— Diana Bernin (Senior Researcher)
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Chalmers University of Technology
The study shows that there is a lot of potential in agricultural waste. We really shouldn’t disregard the opportunity to use this type of cellulose streams for our future clothing.
— Joanna Wojtasz (Lead Author)
Researcher
Tree To Textile
