LIBOLON eco textiles: RePET and other polyester yarns
Scientific evidence conclusively demonstrates that human activities are creating measurable and increasingly negative impacts on the global climate. Industrial emissions have been the dominant influence in climate change, and facing this challenge, each member of the global village needs to shoulder its part of the collective responsibility to environmental protection.
LIBOLON’s long-term philosophy is to strive for environmental sustainability, to efficiently utilize the limited natural resources, and to cut down CO2 emissions while providing its core recycled fabric and recycled yarn products. Thus, LIBOLON developed two series of environmentally-friendly products: Ecoya®and RePET®.
RePET® is a new recycled yarn textile manufactured from used PET bottles. LIBOLON has developed the latest recycling technology to reuse waste, avoiding the environmental burden from discarding them in landfills. The recycling technology does not utilize virgin PTA (terephthalic acid), which is made from petroleum as its main raw material, reducing energy and CO2 emissions and lowering the use of petrochemical materials.
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We evaluated the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions that result from the following demonstration:
 (A).The original process: production of non-rpet yarns and home textiles from virgin PTA energy and CO2 emissions:
The PTA manufacturing energy use and CO2 emissions data for the original process were provided by INVISTA & OUCC, and includes the following steps:
Extraction and transport of raw materials (oil and natural gas)
Manufacturing of PTA from raw materials (oil and natural gas)
Energy consumption and CO2 emissions generated from the production of polyester yarns made from PTA were evaluated by LIBOLON researchers, with the following results:
Energy use ( MJ/1 metric ton pet) |
CO2 emissions ( metric ton/metric ton PET) |
13455 |
1.088 |
|
(B).The recycling process: production of recycled yarn eco textile from used PET bottle:
Energy use ( MJ/1 metric ton pet) |
CO2 emissions ( metric ton/metric ton PET) |
6376 |
0.494
|
|
Comparison of the energy use between the two processes as following chart:
Comparison of the CO2 emissions between the two processes as following chart:
The recycling process includes: collection of post-consumer bottles from subcontractors; removal of bottle caps and labels; bottle crushing; material washing; sifting; and drying. The resulting product is white flakes, provided as raw materials for re-polymerization.
During the fabric manufacturing process, the dyeing engineering stage is the highest energy consumption and waste creation stage. Utilizing the advantages of a vertically integrated manufacturing system, LIBOLON has developed a new process whereby various specific pigments are injected into the polymers during the spinning process to create various colored polyester yarn, called Ecoya®. The Ecoya® series of eco-friendly products was designed based on reducing energy use, greenhouse gases emissions, and water and chemical consumption by eliminating the dyeing process. By omitting the dyeing process, discharged water waste can be significantly decreased, reducing the overall environmental load. Compared with regular fabrics made from dyeing, Ecoya ® polyester yarns have better light properties and washing resistance, and additionally offer better color reproducibility and shade variation.
Comparison the CO2 emissions between regular fabrics and Ecoya™
( ton / 104 yards ) |
De-sizing process |
Dyeing process |
|
|
0.903 |
4.866 |
5.769 |
|
0.903 |
1.24 |
2.143 |
|
0 |
-3.626 |
-3.626 (-62.85%) |
|
Comparison between regular fabrics and Ecoya® on water consumption
( M3/ 104 yards ) |
De-sizing process |
Dyeing process |
|
|
30 |
250 |
280 |
|
30 |
0 |
30 |
|
0 |
250 |
-250 (-89.29%) |
|
Comparison between regular fabrics and Ecoya® on dyestuff and chemical agent consumption
( kg/ 104 yards ) |
dyestuff |
Chemical agent |
|
|
204 |
396 |
600 |
|
0 |
221 |
221 |
|
204 |
-175 |
-379 (-63.17%) |
|
Comparison the polluted level of sewage between regular fabrics and Ecoya™ based on the total amount of C.O.D( chemical oxygen demand).
Kg.COD/ 104 yards |
De-sizing process |
Dyeing process |
|
|
49.95 |
104.05 |
154 |
|
49.95 |
0 |
49.95 |
|
0 |
-104.05 |
-104.05(-67.56%) |
|
Comparison the energy use between regular fabrics and Ecoya®
(KWH / 104 yards ) |
De-sizing process |
Dyeing process |
|
|
1345 |
7480 |
8825 |
|
1345 |
1900 |
3245 |
|
0 |
-5580 |
-5580 (-63.23%) |
|
|
