Biomaterials

US-based deeptech innovator Tandem Repeat, a climate-positive smart textiles company, has developed Procell, a revolutionary patented fermentation microbial process that transforms proteins into valuable products, including fibres and nonwovens which are a less toxic alternative to plastics. Leading inventor and Penn State Huck Endowed Chair of Biomaterials Professor Melik Demirel simplifies the tech and his plans for the future.

Research, experimentation, and countless iterations. Persistence, collaboration, and innovation, and then 2020 where it all began. The priority at the next-gen material science company, Balena, that develops high-performance biopolymer materials, is to continue disrupting the materials industry by innovating and developing cutting-edge circular materials to replace hazardous, non-compostable plastics currently used in various industries. Chief Executive Officer David Roubach talks products and the journey this far.

Two sets of experiments have shown that biobased fibres like viscose and lyocell present a greater hazard than conventional polymers used in equivalent applications.

One of the product launches that the fashion world was eagerly looking forward to this year was that of Mexico-based innovator Polybion’s NextGen material, Celium. CFO Alexis Gómez-Ortigoza and CEO Axel Gómez-Ortigoza tell texfash what it took for them to get Celium to a global launch and how they see the market developing in the years ahead.

As the search for an alternative recyclable leather continues, scientists in Germany have developed a synthetic leather in which both the fibre material and the coating polymer are bio-based and recyclable.

NextGen material Celium — Premium Cultivated Cellulose — will now be available globally for consumer product applications, empowering more brands to adopt low carbon materials into their product categories.

Creating an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics is only one part of the long road to viability and it is with this goal that researchers have developed algae-based “completely biodegradable” polymers.

Well, you now have a leather alternative that dyes itself! Researchers at the Imperial College London have created the sustainable, self-dyeing leather alternative by modifying the genes of a bacteria species that produces a strong, flexible and malleable material.

On a mission to use sustainable algae technologies to replace petroleum-derived products to launch carbon negative products, Living Ink is a biomaterials company that has developed Algae Black, a sustainable alternative to the black pigment used to make materials such as ink, plastics, leathers and rubber. texfash.com in conversation with the Co-Founders Scott Fulbright and Stevan Albers.

Japanese biotechnology startup Spiber’s Brewed Protein materials has found four more collaborators to help catalyse the industry's transition from a linear “take-make-use-dispose” model to a circular “take-make-use-reuse” model.