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Some textile dyeing is still done by hand
In a small corner of rural Taiwan, surrounded by other dye houses and small factories, start-up Alchemie Technology is in the final stages of rolling out a project that it says will shake up the global clothing industry and reduce its carbon footprint.
The UK-based startup has targeted one of the dirtiest sectors of the clothing industry: fabric dyeing, with the world's first digital dyeing process.
“Traditionally, in fabric dyeing, you soak the fabric in 135 degree Celsius water for about four hours – gallons and tons of water. For example, to dye a tonne of polyester, you generate 30 tonnes of toxic wastewater,” Alchemie founder Dr Alan Hudd tells me.
“It’s the same process that was developed 175 years ago in the northwest of England, in the cotton mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and we exported it,” he points out. , first in the United States, then in factories in Asia. .
Dye works consume a lot of heat and water
The clothing industry uses about five trillion liters of water each year just to dye fabrics, according to the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research center based in the United States.
Industry is, in turn, responsible for 20% of the world's industrial water pollution, while also using vital resources like groundwater in some countries. It also generates a massive carbon footprint from start to finish – about 10% of annual global emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
Alchemie says its technology can help solve this problem.
Called Endeavor, its machine can compress dyeing, drying and fixing fabrics into a significantly shorter, water-efficient process.
Endeavor uses the same principle as inkjet printing to quickly and accurately project dye onto and through fabric, according to the company. The machine's 2,800 dispensers project approximately 1.2 billion droplets per linear meter of fabric.
“What we're actually doing is recording and placing a drop, a very small drop, with precision and accuracy on the tissue. And we can turn these drops on and off, just like a light switch,” says Dr. Hudd.
Alchemie claims significant savings from the process: reducing water consumption by 95%, energy consumption by up to 85%, and working three to five times faster than traditional processes.
Originally developed in Cambridge, the company is now in Taiwan to see how Endeavor works in a real-world environment.
“The UK is very strong at R&D projects, it's very strong at inventing new things, but if you want to move to commercialization you have to go to the real factories,” says Ryan Chen, the new head of operations at Alchemie, who has experience in textile manufacturing in Taiwan.
Alchemie has developed a machine using a printing process to fix colors
Alchemie isn't the only company attempting a nearly waterless dyeing process.
There is the Chinese textile company NTX, which has developed a heat-free dyeing process that reduces water consumption by 90% and dyeing by 40%, according to its website, and the Swedish start-up Imogo, which also uses a “numeric”. spray application” with similar environmental benefits.
NTX and Imogo did not respond to the BBC's request for an interview.
Kirsi Niinimäki, a design professor who studies the future of textiles at Aalto University in Finland, says the solutions offered by these companies look “quite promising” – although she adds that she would like to see more specific information on issues such as the fixation process and long-term studies on fabric durability.
But even though it's early days, Ms Niinimäki believes that companies like Alchemie could bring real change to the sector.
“All these types of new technologies, I think they are improvements. If you can use less water, for example, that of course means less energy, and maybe even fewer chemicals – so that's of course a huge improvement.
Alchemie is expanding its operations
Back in Taiwan, there are still some issues to resolve, such as how to operate the Endeavor machine in a hotter and more humid climate than in the UK.
Alchemie service manager Matthew Avis, who helped rebuild Endeavor in its new factory, discovered that the machine must operate in a climate-controlled environment – an important lesson given the scale of garment manufacturing in South Asia.
The company also has big goals for 2025. After its test with polyester in Taiwan, Alchemie is traveling to South Asia and Portugal to test its machines and also try it on cotton.
They will also have to figure out how to develop Endeavor.
Large fashion companies like Inditex, owner of Zara, work with thousands of factories. Its suppliers would need hundreds of Endeavors working together to meet its demand for fabric dyeing.
And that’s just one business – there will be many more in need.
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