Elastane on agenda at Dornbirn
The Lycra Company’s director of sustainable business development, Jean Hegedus, will present on the company’s elastane with 70% bio-derived content at the Dornbirn Global Fiber Congress (GFC), which is taking place in the Austrian city between September 11 and 13.
She will present alongside Andrea Vanderhoff, director of technology and sustainability for Qore, the makers of Qira, a 1,4-butanediol (BDO) made from dent corn that is used as a raw ingredient.
Ms Hegadus said: “Soon nearly 70 percent of the Lycra fibre content will be derived from annually renewable feedstock, thus potentially reducing the carbon footprint of Lycra fibre by up to 44%, as per a life cycle assessment. This sustainable solution is expected to deliver equivalent performance to our original fibre, helping to reduce our environmental impact and that of our customers.”
Alberto Ceria, Lycra’s senior applications development professional, and David Godshall, Lycra’s senior R&D scientist, will also be on the roster, discussing pre and post-consumer recycling of Lycra fibre.
Elastane will feature elsewhere at the conference, with seminars including ‘The faith of elastane during chemical recycling’ by Anna Edsberger from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden; ‘Polymer recycling solutions for textile waste containing elastane’ by Emanuel Boschmeier, TU Wien; and ‘Blend of dimethyl sulfoxide and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran as solvent for selective elastane dissolution from fabrics’ by Lukas Vonbrül from Universität Innsbruck.
The three-day event will also feature Lenzing’s Christian Sperger, speaking about challenges in recycling; Lorenza Gardella talking about stretch yarn Xlance; and Liliana Leite from Fibrenamics discussing high-quality hemp fibres.
Image: Dornbirn 2023
