During the last decade, consumer demand for affordable clothes has increased significantly. Fashion brands launch new pieces regularly at prices that encourage short use-time for the garments. To leverage these market patterns, designers turn to low-price textile fibres which in reality means synthetic fibres like rayon, viscose or, nylon. Viscose and rayon are used as cheap substitutes for natural fibers like cotton or wool. The range of applications for synthetic fibers is very broad: home textiles, surgical products, vehicle carpeting, cigarette filters. Particularly for cellulosic fibers applications include non-woven materials like tissues, diapers and medical products, or for carpets.
Man-made fibres (polymers) can be produced from cellulose which is often derived from wood. By 2016, the global market for man-made cellulose fibers was ca. 7 % (7 million tons) and the market value stood at ca. 20 billion USD by 2015. The global market for man-made fibers is estimated to increase by 9% per year, with the growing textile industry in Asia at the forefront. This is pointing to a huge and expanding global market for synthetic fibers produced from cellulose – or in fact wood (lignocellulosic biomass).
The growing demand for polymers puts the FRACTION project at the center stage. The fractionation process that is being developed in FRACTION project enables both the production of high-value cellulosic fibres from wood and, valorization of the hemicellulose for bio-polymer production. As the global textile industry accounts for nearly one third of global emissions of CO2 and, by substituting fossil-based ingredients with wood, the greenhouse gas emissions can be significantly reduced and not only in Europe.
The report D6.4 explains further about market potentials in the textile industry and other applications for FRACTION chemical compounds.
For more information, contact Karen Thorsted Hamann, karen@ifau.dk.