Out of the Woods: Nordic Countries Take the Lead with a Range of Innovative Fibres

There has been a drive that the forest industry and wood-based products should be processed further locally, and this way retain local production and increase the economic value of the cellulose. Both researchers and the large wood industry companies have been looking into producing new biobased chemicals, glues, liquids and heat resistant layers, biofuels, carbon, battery materials, composites, medicines, and textile fibres.

Wood as an alternative for cotton and other, even synthetic oil-based textile fibres is a great opportunity for the Nordics, where there is existing renewable cellulose processing skills and knowledge. What is interesting however, are the industry overlaps and opportunities between new sustainable textile fibre sources and wood pulp. The same applies to oil-based synthetic fibres and plastics industries. The wood and pulp industry is exploring new wood-based products and markets, offering more sustainable alternatives to replace existing material sources.

The event looked at innovative wood-based products that are going beyond conventional wood products, to added value in new applications such as textiles. Sustainability was very much visible and companies are clearly wanting to show how they are offering solutions and working towards these goals in various ways.

It discussed how the treatment of wood-based cellulose and end-of-life textiles natural fibres like cotton is very similar. The production processes are often similar—using existing mechanisms, requiring various processing stages to utilise these natural materials. The technology and treatments can be adapted to produce suitable fibres and ingredients both from pulp and other byproducts for the textiles industry. There are already in commercial production various MMCF products and new ones are emerging, but full-scale production in still in its infancy and requiring investments—as we have seen this year—to scale up production from piloting to large scale.

In addition to Spinnova and TreeToTextile that use wood as a source, there are other commercial companies that have emerged with successful fibre alternatives using textile waste and blends, such as Infinited Fibre Company’s Infinna, Ioncell, Nordic Bioproducts, Södra’s OnceMore and Renewcell’s Circulose.

The supply chains are however long, requiring many stages, need suitable feedstock, possibly blending different materials, chemically dissolving the feedstock into pulp, treatments such as bleaching, drying, and processing new fibres.

Spinnova said that their pilot production facility uses no harmful chemicals, close to zero water and minimal emissions. These whole ecosystems are however, not found locally anymore.

On show at the exhibition was Metsä Spring’s Kuura fibre made from locally sourced softwood pulp at their bioproducts mill in Central Finland. A few weeks ago, they had announced that the pre-study has started for a commercial Kuura fibre mill in Äänekoski. Their stand drew attention with a cocoon of Kuura fibre including a seat in the middle, inviting to sit down to take selfies. Next to it was the fleece made by Japanese textile industry partner Itochu.

Another large forest company UPM has joined hands with Vaude, a German outdoor apparel supplier, to produce a fleece with bio-based wood resin BioPura which intends to replace polyester. The new BioMEG production facility will be completed by the end of the year in Leuna, Germany.

Valmet was also present with its expertise in pulping machinery and processing technologies, including solutions for sustainable fibre processing. They have supplied the processing lines for Renewcell at their Sundvall facility and Spinnova in Jyväskylä. Their services also extend into research, innovations, and piloting.

Many of the exhibition participants offered different solutions to various production stages for the traditional forest pulp from physical machinery to production optimisation software and camera technology for quality control.

One offering pulp-based materials industrial piloting and testing was Fibre-X, who concentrate on bridging technology and process engineering to develop custom solutions to help scaling. Their team of experts want to take ideas to production and are testing different methods of processing end-of-life textile raw-material to new applications and scaling.

There were also other technologies that could be adapted to the production of new textile fibres from biomaterials, even processing of textile waste and different treatments that would allow them to be made into new raw material for the textiles industry. There is a need for various mechanical processing methods to be developed for the materials so that they are in the right form so that they can be utilised by the next processor. This is where piloting and testing facilities towards industrial scale are needed from companies such as Fibrer-X.

What will remain to be seen is how the textiles industry landscape will change in the next decade due to the forthcoming legislative requirements for more sustainable materials, the commercial case and viability scenarios, and new sources of available fibres. What is certain is that the industry is heading into a new fibre era, and current dominant fibres like cotton and polyester will find competition from bio-based materials such as wood and recycled fibres.