Dyeing

Seven denim manufacturers from Pakistan, Türkiye, Italy, and China recently collaborated on measuring and comparing water use in indigo dyeing, and wrent on to establish a shared benchmark. Andrew Olah, Founder of Transformers Foundation, and Rashid Iqbal, Executive Director at Naveena Denim, share experiences and ideas on the backdrop and the project's significance.

Brazilian researchers have successfully demonstrated that seawater can replace significant portions of freshwater in cotton textile dyeing processes. The study evaluated reactive blue dye performance across varying seawater concentrations, revealing sustainable alternatives for water-scarce regions while maintaining commercial colour quality standards.

The Transformers Foundation has launched the first benchmark for water usage in indigo dyeing, offering clear standards for measuring environmental impact. The study, involving seven denim mills and equipment makers, defined water consumption metrics for both rope and slasher dyeing methods, aiming to curb greenwashing and bring consistency to denim sustainability reporting.

Getting the right shade of dye is often difficult for fabric manufacturers, but research from the Wilson College of Textiles is using machine learning to tackle the mismatch of shades which could actually help reduce textile manufacturing waste by more accurately mapping how colours will change during the dyeing process.

Portugal’s University of Coimbra (UC) is developing innovative technologies to make textile dyeing more cost-effective and sustainable and a just launched project—DyeLoop—uses unique circular economy technologies to reuse dyes and significantly reduce water and energy consumption.

Pili has a mission—it produces decarbonised alternatives based on renewable resources for sustainable industrial applications. Pili President Jérémie Blache explains how Pili uses hybrid processes combining industrial fermentation and organic chemistry to manufacture sustainable, high-performance colour ranges for the textiles industry.

The UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has come out with a report that aims to encourage innovators, brands, retailers and manufacturers to work together so that the industry can collectively achieve environmental impact reduction goals.

Almost nothing has changed in the production of indigo for over a century. But now, French biotech innovator Synovance is producing dyes from microorganisms using industrial waste as raw material. Co-Founder and COO Efi Lioliou explains how the company has been able to produce sustainable dyes using biochemical methods.

Researchers in Denmark have engineered a dyeing method that eliminates the need for harsh chemicals which can enable largescale production and application of indican, a molecule derived from the same plant that bears indigo.

Sparxell, a UK-based startup creating the next generation of colours and effects with vibrant, metal-like pigments, all from plant-based cellulose has been awarded the 2023 Ray of Hope Prize.