The project is important and has a high industrial relevance as most end-of-life textiles, especially polyester, are mixed with elastane, dyes and other chemicals, which makes them very difficult to recycle on a larger scale. Mechanical recycling methods degrade fiber quality, while chemical methods require clean white inflows and use strong solvents. This creates inefficiency in the entire value chain and causes textile waste to only increase.

The project, which is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency under the Impact Innovation Net Zero Industry call, will contribute to the establishment of a competitive and resilient Swedish manufacturing industry with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. 

The project will further develop a scalable, water-free purification process based on subcritical-supercritical CO₂ to remove elastane and dyes from polyester textiles without affecting the textile fibers. The recycled textile fibers will be processed using melt spinning in the polymer lab at the University of Borås and validated in finished prototypes together with the sportswear brand Stadium. By building on Renasen’s core technology, the project addresses a huge and central obstacle in textile recycling, enables broader use of collected materials and supports the EU’s goals for circularity.

The project is led by Renasens AB, and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Borås will participate. The project is based on the company Renasens AB's developed technology for clean recycled textiles using a water-free cleaning process.

The project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency under the call Impact Innovation Net Zero Industry.

Read more about Impact Innovation Net Zero industry