A New Textile-To-Textile Recycling Process Has Been Validated On An Industrial Scale.

AXENS, IFPEN and JEPLAN are implementing a textile polyester recycling loop.

Paris /PRNewswire/ - Several dozen tons of European post-consumer textile waste, sorted and prepared in France, rich in polyester, have been processed in Japan at the semi-industrial demonstration unit of Axens, IFPEN and JEPLAN, to successfully produce the basic monomer of a 100% recycled polyester.

This step lays the foundation for circular polyester loops for the textile industry, in particular sportswear, furniture or the luxury sector.

• AXENS, IFPEN, and JEPLAN announce the successful completion of a major industrial trial recycling post-consumer textile waste rich in polyester (PET) using their Rewind® PET technology. This trial was conducted at their semi-industrial facility (capacity 1,000 tons/year) operated by JEPLAN in Japan.
• This large-scale validation involves several tens of tons of textiles collected through French public channels, sorted and prepared by two French partners, Nouvelles Fibres Textile and Mapea. Several tens of tons of the basic polyester monomer, BHET, have been produced, which will soon be transformed into polyester yarns, fabrics, and garments.
• This industrial textile-to-textile recycling test of several tons of post-consumer PET is one of the first of its kind under representative industrial conditions. It paves the way for large-scale industrial chemical recycling of polyester textiles, offering textile industry stakeholders a building block for a solution that can be integrated into a global industry-wide strategy focused on textile reduction, reuse, and recycling.

The recycled PET produced by this process is intended to be transformed into yarn, fabric, and then clothing, thus completing the textile-to-textile loop for segments such as:

• Sportswear and outdoor clothing (which are heavy consumers of polyester);
• Furnishings (upholstery fabrics, curtains, covers);
• Some luxury applications incorporate polyester in a controlled manner.