New textile-to-textile recycling process validated on industrial scale

AXENS, IFPEN and JEPLAN announced the success of a major industrial test for recycling post-consumer textile waste rich in polyester (PET) using their Rewind PET technology. This test was carried out in their semi-industrial unit (capacity 1,000 ton/year) operated by JEPLAN in Japan.

Semi-industrial demonstration plant operated by JEPLAN. (Source: JEPLAN)

This validation at a significant scale consisted in processing several tens of tons of textiles from the French public collection, sorted and prepared by two French partners, Nouvelles Fibres Textile and Mapea. Several tens of tons of the base monomer of polyester, BHET, have been produced and will soon be converted into polyester yarns, fabrics and garments.

This industrial textile-to-textile recycling test of several tons of post-consumer PET is one of the first of its kind under representative industrial conditions.

It paves the way for large-scale industrial chemical recycling of textile polyester, offering textile stakeholders a building block that can be integrated into a global strategy across the entire value chain committed to reduction, reuse, and textile recycling.

The technology, already proven and commercialized for recycling all PET packaging, including food-contact applications, is now validated for textile use under an exclusive license granted by IFPEN/JEPLAN to Axens worldwide to any industrial player wishing to develop local or regional textile-to-textile loops.