Public Funding for Dyerecycle Ltd

Fashion and textile industries are causing extreme pollution at both ends of their supply chain through dyeing operations and textile waste accumulation. Textile recycling requires clean and homogenous inputs and textile dyeing needs to be more sustainable. One of the barriers to effective textile recycling is the presence of dyes in textile waste.Dyes make textile waste heterogeneous, meaning mechanical recyclers must intelligently blend colours, and chemical recyclers must decolour the material prior processing. At the other end of the supply chain, dyeing processes accounts for 20% of global wastewater pollution, and over 99% of dyes used are derived from fossil fuels. DyeRecycle is a new chemical technology creating decolorization pretreatment for textile waste while also enabling dye recycling from waste fibres -- an innovative circular dyeing concept. The process takes in colored textile waste, and extracts the dyes into an environmentally benign solvent. This removes the colour from the waste without degrading the material, producing homogeneous decoloured fibres that are more easily recycled. The dye-rich solvent is then used as a dyeing bath to dye new material with the recycled dyes. This project aims to progress the technology: from a bench-scale process dyeing small pieces of fabric, to a pilot-scale process able to efficiently dye full-size garments. Scale-up trials will be conducted at a 25-L scale, processing pre-consumer textile waste provided by UK-based textile manufacturer. These trials will demonstrate textile waste decolourization and subsequent dyeing of full-size garments. Several key metrics will be assessed for the decolored material, newly dyed material, as well as multiple scaled-up process parameters. Decolored materials will be assessed for their mechanical and chemical properties and to test their recyclability. Newly dyed material will be characterised in terms of its colour fastness as well as the consistency of dyeing within and across batches. Findings from process scale-up will help us validate our value proposition and design of a future pilot plant, as well as to strengthen the process business case and further develop partnerships within the sustainable fashion space. The project also aims to develop lab-based prototypes and process customers samples for to demonstrate the technology using their textile waste and fabric inputs. This will create a revenue stream for DyeRecycle and improve our investment readiness level by demonstrating a clear market pull and tangible customer traction.