Low carbon waterless digital textile dyeing - enabling UK textile manufacturing

纺织业是地球上污染最严重的行业之一。它占全球二氧化碳排放量的近10%，是化学污染的第二大来源；主要是由于染料和加工化学品的排放。纺织工业的能源消耗是由于在商业染色过程中使用了大量的热水，这在70年来几乎没有改变。这导致纺织染色约占全球二氧化碳排放量的3%，与航空业相似。由于消费者和政府已经认识到这些问题，现在纺织行业面临着重大而紧迫的压力，要求其改变制造方法，使其更具可持续性。制造方法已经过时，制造业设在低成本国家，这些国家多年来一直容忍能源密集、污染严重的生产过程。严重的成本压力确保了对制造技术的最少投资和对当地和全球环境影响的充分考虑。随着各国政府认识到气候变化和化学污染对其公民的影响，纺织行业正在发生变化。消费者也意识到了这个问题，并要求品牌采取行动，变得更加可持续，并解决“快时尚”对整体消费的加速影响。现在，各大品牌都在关注可持续性，并迫切寻求新的方法来生产低碳产品，减少对环境的总体影响。为了满足这一需求，Alchemie Technology开发了一种突破性的纺织品染色工艺——奋进号，旨在通过消除废水来彻底改变纺织品染色工艺，从而将染色所需的能源减少85%以上。这将产生重大的全球影响；由于纺织印染目前约占全球二氧化碳排放量的3%，因此实施奋进号工艺将对全球二氧化碳排放量产生重大影响。从长远来看，奋进号的技术也有可能产生更大的影响；由于消费量的增加，到2050年，纺织品的碳足迹预计将增加到全球总量的25%。如果到2050年在全球范围内实施，“奋进”计划将减少全球总排放量的8%，与欧洲的排放量相当。Stretchline是世界上最大的窄网弹性织物生产商，也是可持续纺织品制造的领导者。Stretchline总部位于英国，是一家在全球范围内生产纺织品的全球性集团，其中包括在英国的先进制造业务。采用Alchemie的奋进技术，有可能通过一个更加可持续、灵活的制造平台，彻底改变其运营方式。该项目的目的是证明奋进无水智能染色工艺可以提供符合Stretchline要求的染色织物。这将使突破性的低碳染色技术得以实施，该技术可以提供具有非凡灵活性的市场制造能力。该项目还将使英国能够生产高价值纺织品，包括用于COVID-19口罩的医用纺织品。

The textile industry is one of the most polluting on the planet. It is responsible for almost 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions and is the \#2 source of chemical pollution; mainly due to the emission of dyestuffs and process chemicals. The energy consumption of the textile industry is attributable to the large volumes of heated water used in commercial dyeing processes, which have changed little in the 70 years since they were invented. This results in textile dyeing contributing to approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions - similar to aviation.As consumers and governments have recognised these issues, there is now significant and urgent pressure on the textile industry to change manufacturing methods to become more sustainable. Manufacturing methods are out-dated, with manufacturing located in low-cost countries, where energy intensive, polluting processes have been tolerated for many years. Severe cost pressure has ensured minimal investment in manufacturing technology and insufficient consideration of the local and global environmental impact.The textile industry is changing, as governments recognise the impact on their citizens of both climate change and chemical pollution. Consumers are also recognising the issue and demanding that brands take action to become more sustainable and address the accelerating effect that "Fast Fashion" has had on overall consumption. Major brands are now focusing on sustainability and urgently seeking new methods to manufacture their products that are less carbon intensive and reduce overall impact on the environment.To address this need, Alchemie Technology has developed a breakthrough textile dyeing process - Endeavour - which is aiming to revolutionise the process of textile dyeing by eliminating waste water and as a result, reducing the energy required for dyeing by over 85%. This will make a significant global impact; since textile dyeing currently accounts for around 3% of global CO2 emissions, implementation of the Endeavour process will have a significant effect on global CO2 emissions. The Endeavour technology also has the potential to make even more impact in the long term; the carbon footprint of textiles is expected to increase to 25% of the global total by 2050 due to increasing consumption. Endeavour, if implemented worldwide by 2050, would eliminate ~8% of the global total - comparable to eliminating the emissions of Europe.Stretchline is the world's \#1 producer of narrow-web elasticated fabric and a leader in sustainable textile manufacturing. Headquartered in the UK, Stretchline is a global group that manufactures textile products worldwide, including advanced manufacturing operations in the UK. Implementing Alchemie's Endeavour technology has the potential to revolutionise its operations with a dramatically more sustainable, flexible manufacturing platform.The aim of this project is to demonstrate that the Endeavour Waterless Smart Dyeing process can deliver dyed fabrics that meet Stretchline's requirements. This will enable the implementation of a breakthrough low carbon dyeing technology that can deliver in-market manufacturing capability with exceptional flexibility. This project will also enable manufacturing in the UK of high value textile products, including medical textiles for COVID-19 facemasks.