Zhejiang Amineo New Materials Co., Ltd. has started operation of the world's first demonstration plant for recycling polyester-spandex blended fabrics at the Guoke New Materials Innovation Base in Shaoxing on September 19, 2024, marking the industrialization of the technology from laboratory to factory. Mao Debin, executive director and general manager of the company, said it plans to build its first 10,000-ton plant in early 2025 based on the demonstration plant and advance global layout within five years.

Key Points

  • On September 19, 2024, the world's first demonstration plant for recycling polyester-spandex blended fabrics was put into operation at the Guoke New Materials Innovation Base in Shaoxing.
  • Amineo has mastered chemical recycling technologies for four types of blended fabrics: polyester-spandex, polyester-cotton, polyester-wool, and polyester-cotton-spandex, with recovery rates of each fiber component exceeding 99%.
  • The company plans to start building its first 10,000-ton plant in early 2025 and achieve global layout within five years.

Technical Breakthrough in Closed-Loop Recycling of Blends

According to Mao Debin, Amineo has achieved complete closed-loop recycling of two-component blended fabrics such as polyester-spandex, polyester-cotton, and polyester-wool. Its R&D team recently also broke through the closed-loop recycling of three-component polyester-cotton-spandex blended fabrics. Relying on its catalytic system, the team completed kilogram-scale separation and recycling of waste polyester-cotton-spandex (63%/32%/5%) blended clothing, with recovery rates of polyester, spandex, and cotton all exceeding 99%. The three materials returned to the textile industry chain in the form of recycled polyester, recycled cotton, and recycled spandex, respectively. This is described by the company as the world's first complete closed-loop recycling of three-component blended fabrics from industrial post-consumer/post-industrial waste.

While advancing polyester-cotton-spandex technology, the team also completed kilogram-scale separation and recycling tests of polyester-wool blended fabrics, achieving a lossless wool recovery rate of over 99%, providing a technical solution for recycling wool/cashmere components in blended fabrics.

Polyester-Cotton Blend Recycling and Fiber-to-Fiber Forum

In February 2024, the Qingdao Amineo R&D team made progress in green recycling technology for polyester-cotton blends, recovering 312.3 grams of pure cotton from 700 grams of polyester-cotton blended clothing (55% polyester, 45% cotton) under low-temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions, with a recovery rate of 99.15%. The company said the low-temperature and atmospheric pressure conditions allow the separated cotton component to maintain its original structure and physicochemical properties.

To promote the recycling of waste textiles, during ChinaReplas2024, the 7th China International Plastics Recycling Exhibition, the first Fibreloop Fiber-to-Fiber Forum will be held on October 23, 2024, at the Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center in Dongguan, Guangdong. The forum is hosted by the China Plastics Recycling Association (CPRRA), co-organized by the Recycling Chemical Fiber Branch of the China Chemical Fibers Association and Testex (Beijing) Textile Testing Co., Ltd., with the theme "Fiber-to-Fiber Solutions." The agenda covers topics such as the current status of textile recycling, PET chemical and enzymatic recycling, sorting equipment, and integrated recycled chip projects.

Source: Within 5 Years, 10,000-Ton Scale! World's First Polyester-Spandex Blend Fabric Recycling Demonstration Plant Officially Starts Production · Originally published on 2024-09-24