Abstract
The Josef Ressel Center “ReSTex – Recovery Strategies for Textiles”, addresses one of the central issues on the way to more sustainable societies and bioeconomies: the recycling of textiles. The focus is on utilization of cellulosic textiles and the separation of cellulosic blends, such as cotton/polyester, the so-called “polycotton”. The Ressel Centre is funded by the Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG) and is located at the University of Applied Sciences Wiener
Neustadt, Biotech Campus Tulln and will tackle the scientific challenges of the topic together with its scientific partners, two institutes at the University of Natural Resources (BOKU) and one at TU Wien, Vienna, and three partner companies: Salesianer Miettex GmbH, a textile rental company, provides clean and sorted starting material of known composition. Starlinger & Co Gesellschaft
m.b.H. and EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen GmbH provide PET recycling machines and seek to optimize their processes for fibrous material and enlarge their portfolio to textile recycling machinery.
Two general recycling routes will be explored: first, cellulose hydrolysis by biotechnological methods converts cellulose to fermentable carbohydrates while purifying out the PET fraction from polycotton blends. Second, the selective dissolution of cellulosic blended textiles aims at separating the cotton and PET fractions in polymeric form without extensive degradation. Initial work phases address screening and characterization of the starting textile blends, as well
as evaluation of requirements for recycling. A database of spectral analysis data will be established and processed by AI. Several pre-treatment methods and special cellulose solvents for separation of cotton-rich articles will be tested. Enzymatic hydrolysis of cotton involves mechanical pretreatment of cotton/PET blends, chemical activation procedures and evaluation of conditions for enzymatic action, as well as screening of commercially available enzyme formulations. Follow-up work optimizes the solvents/solvent systems towards improved selectivity, suitable conditions for minimal impact on polymer integrity in case of high cotton fractions. The cellulose residues in the PET fraction that negatively influence the extrusion process are dealt with by two different methods: elimination by selective dissolution and by stabilization of cellulose for the extrusion process. In later phases, process engineering will allow scale-up of the processes to pilot scale. All developments will be accompanied by economic and ecological considerations, including Life Cycle Analysis.
www.fhwn.ac.at/en/research/josef-ressel-centre-restex www.cdg.ac.at/en/research-units/labor/recovery-strategies-for-textiles
www.linkedin.com/company/jrc-restex
Neustadt, Biotech Campus Tulln and will tackle the scientific challenges of the topic together with its scientific partners, two institutes at the University of Natural Resources (BOKU) and one at TU Wien, Vienna, and three partner companies: Salesianer Miettex GmbH, a textile rental company, provides clean and sorted starting material of known composition. Starlinger & Co Gesellschaft
m.b.H. and EREMA Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen GmbH provide PET recycling machines and seek to optimize their processes for fibrous material and enlarge their portfolio to textile recycling machinery.
Two general recycling routes will be explored: first, cellulose hydrolysis by biotechnological methods converts cellulose to fermentable carbohydrates while purifying out the PET fraction from polycotton blends. Second, the selective dissolution of cellulosic blended textiles aims at separating the cotton and PET fractions in polymeric form without extensive degradation. Initial work phases address screening and characterization of the starting textile blends, as well
as evaluation of requirements for recycling. A database of spectral analysis data will be established and processed by AI. Several pre-treatment methods and special cellulose solvents for separation of cotton-rich articles will be tested. Enzymatic hydrolysis of cotton involves mechanical pretreatment of cotton/PET blends, chemical activation procedures and evaluation of conditions for enzymatic action, as well as screening of commercially available enzyme formulations. Follow-up work optimizes the solvents/solvent systems towards improved selectivity, suitable conditions for minimal impact on polymer integrity in case of high cotton fractions. The cellulose residues in the PET fraction that negatively influence the extrusion process are dealt with by two different methods: elimination by selective dissolution and by stabilization of cellulose for the extrusion process. In later phases, process engineering will allow scale-up of the processes to pilot scale. All developments will be accompanied by economic and ecological considerations, including Life Cycle Analysis.
www.fhwn.ac.at/en/research/josef-ressel-centre-restex www.cdg.ac.at/en/research-units/labor/recovery-strategies-for-textiles
www.linkedin.com/company/jrc-restex
| Originalsprache | Englisch |
|---|---|
| Titel | Recy & DepoTech-Konferenz |
| Erscheinungsort | Leoben |
| Herausgeber (Verlag) | Montanuniversität Leoben |
| Seiten | 811 |
| Seitenumfang | 814 |
| Band | 17 |
| ISBN (elektronisch) | 978-3-200-09925-8 |
| Publikationsstatus | Veröffentlicht - Nov. 2024 |