INDEX 2008 Geneva April 2008

INDEX 2008: Geneva , April 15-19th

Key Points• Bio-refineries for the production of a wide range of organic chemicals from biomass are becoming viable now that fossil-fuel price and availability is less favourable.
• Despite growth in bio-polymers, woodpulp will remain the predominant renewable resource for fibre, and viscose and lyocell still have “no sensible alternative for absorbent nonwovens.”
• The two spun-laid lyocell consortia formed in 2006 appear to be rearranging. Reicofil is moving to a Biax Fiberfilm head, and Nanoval have fallen out of favour with Lenzing.
• Birla promoted their Excel™ lyocell staple and their Purocel™ heavy-metal free viscose.
• Viscose is becoming cheaper and more available as production capacity increases and it becomes less fashionable in textiles.
• Viscose alloy fibres containing chitosan (antimicrobial), milk protein and superabsorbents are being distributed by Waxman Fibres Ltd.
• PP spunbonds down to 8gsm for core-wrap were commonly available and 6-7gsm has been made but fails on the strength specification. 800m/min is now possible according to Reicofil.
• Fitesa ( Brazil ) are expanding aggressively and plan to install 2 R4 lines in the USA .
• More products containing nanofibres are being commercialised using the Elmarco Nanospider system of electrospinning from smooth rollers. This system does not work with lyocell.
• Fleissner followed Mitsubishi Rayon Engineering and introduced steam-jet bonding as a final stage of their hydroentanglement system. This reduces energy required in drying and could be important in lowering the minimum basis weight potential.

  Introduction

For the first time, Index was held without a conference alongside the exhibition. The Global Nonwovens Summit, an invitation only event sponsored by EDANA, INDA and ANFA occupied one morning, and free Product Presentation sessions in the main Hall allowed exhibitors to give short promotional presentations on their products for a few hours each day.

This summary concentrates on information gathered from the Exhibition. Your correspondent was not invited to the Summit , but copies of the two papers were obtained and are summarised below.

Raw Material Change in the EU Chemical Industry

Dr Jörg Rothermel of the German Chemical Industry Association discussed the prospects for organic chemical production switching to renewable raw materials when oil and gas feedstocks get increasingly costly. With biomass being the only renewable resource which has the potential to be carbon neutral, the EU will inevitably increase its industrial use from the present level of about 9 million tonnes/year or 8-10% of feedstock for organic chemicals.

Of this 9 million tonnes, starch (35%) and vegetable oils/fats (31%) are the most used, but cellulose (16%) and sugar (14%) are important and growing sources of a range of organic chemicals and polymers. Their competitiveness, traditionally based on economic and technical advantages, is now being enhanced by sustainability, security of supply and climate change considerations. The result is increased innovation in the use of biomass for the development of new products, and while the price differential c.f.fossil fuel was steadily diminishing, prices are now fluctuating wildly as rising demand, regional programmes for biofuel production, and climate change related weather problems influence their availability.

The EU is not well supplied with biomass compared with Central and South America, Africa south of the Sahara, the former Soviet bloc or North America . By 2050, according to an IFEU 2007 study, 6-15 billion tonnes of oil-equivalent in the form of biomass will be available, and this is at best 70% and at worst 30% of the projected demand for energy. Only 7% of this biomass will be available locally in the EU. More efficient techniques for the production of biomass must therefore be developed, along with other renewable energy sources for heat and electricity generation. This will involve the development new biotechnology to increase biomass production and the development of bio-refineries for the production of basic chemical building-blocks. Sustainability would be the criterion on which political strategy and targets would be set.

Unfortunately, only 10 to 16% of the EU's primary energy needs could be provided by locally produced biomass, and to meet the current strategy, biomass would have to be imported. In addition the chemical industry needs biomass at competitive prices and will have to compete not only with the energy sector but with those industries using the biomass directly, i.e. timber and paper. Similarly, land for the production of biomass will have to compete with food crops and animal feeding. So, just as the organic chemical sector is the smallest consumer of fossil carbon (after power generation and transport) it will be the smallest consumer of renewable carbon, and risks being the victim of subsidisation of the power generation and transport use of renewables.

Finally, while climate protection and sustainability will motivate the politicians to back biomass strategies, it will be crucial to subject these strategies to a comprehensive life-cycle assessment. In principle, 20% of biomass chemicals can be extracted and used directly, but the rest, comprising lignin and cellulose will need new processes to break them down into fossil fuel substitutes. It is these bio-refinery processes which will need to be scrutinised to ensure they do not need more energy than the calorific value of the original biomass. Logistics and infrastructure developments will be needed because large scale economic bio-refineries would necessitate transportation of biomass from farms spread over a wide area.

What does this mean for the fibre and polymer industries? Starch, cellulose and other natural polymers will become increasingly available and important. Polylactic acid and polyhydroxybutyrate will benefit from using biomass other than corn, as will ethanol which can then be used to make polyethylene and PVC. This latter process now being commercialised in Brazil .

Feedstocks for Nonwovens

Colin Purvis, Director General of CIRFS and EATP thought high-priced oil was here to stay and the feedstocks-to-nonwovens chain will have to find ways of absorbing or passing on the higher costs. The superficially more attractive renewable resources would also suffer due to their energy requirements and transportation costs. So, investment in new capacity to produce petrochemicals would continue, mainly in areas of abundant fossil reserves, and the producers of these petrochemicals would encourage the local production of high value consumer products made from them to maximise revenue. Woodpulp would remain the dominant renewable.

Mr Purvis reminded us that the nonwoven industry used less than 0.2% of world oil production, and that a 70km drive in the family car uses more oil than the average per capita consumption of nonwovens. Looking at each of the main fibres in turn:

Polyester: Feedstock demand is increasingly driven by the non-fibre polymer end-uses. While there are no shortages of feedstock, the non-fibre uses are willing to pay premium prices for resin to meet e.g. the growing demand in bottles, so the fibre producers must also pay the premium. “Permanent” structural overcapacity exists in fibre production, and this may keep fibre prices down for some years. Also the ability to recycle the bottle polymer into fibre will support continued competitive fibre pricing.

Polypropylene: Propylene continues to be widely available and new capacity is being added in the Middle East and China . However while the new capacity will reduce cost pressures, prices are likely to remain higher than in the past. Polypropylene capacity is also expanding in the Middle East and China and this is likely to lead to a surplus of polymer, and hence poor margins for polymerisers of propylene. PP Staple capacity exceeds demand now that Spunbond has taken the diaper market, but PP staple is under pressure from cheap polyester staple. PP will not return to the position of the cheapest fibre for nonwovens and while the move to spunbonds will continue, the staple fibre will remain competitive and attract innovation and speciality developments. (Graphically, propylene price was quoted as €930/tonne and PP resin as €1260/tonne).

Viscose and Lyocell: Being based on renewable raw materials converted in a process, which in the hands of the technology leader at least, has outstanding environmental credentials, these fibres are expanding again and no future shortages are envisaged. New dissolving pulp capacities are coming on stream and fibre production capacity is growing in line with demand. Most of this expansion is in Asia but some is occurring in Europe for nonwovens specifically. Suppliers of top quality fibre with high levels of purity are limited in number. There is still no sensible alternative for absorbent nonwovens.

Polyethylene: No shortages foreseen, but the costs will remain linked to oil price. Only 1% of production is used in nonwovens.

Spandex: Will remain a premium product despite the huge increases in demand for stretch apparel, and the increasing investment in raw materials and yarn production.

Renewables : Viscose and lyocell will remain pre-eminent and the relative success of the others, primarily PLA and PTT based on bio-PDO, will depend on a real environmental advantage being confirmed in detailed and independent life cycle assessments. Their current dependence on food crops is a disadvantage which would disappear if large scale bio-refineries succeed.

Points from the Exhibition

Albis

…were showing the first roll of 7 metre wide spunbond produced on their Neumag line. The main advantage of the Neumag approach – apart from the width which was said to be only necessary for agricultural applications – was that it could produce fine fibres without needing the more expensive metallocine resins. The resulting 1.1 denier fibres led to better web quality than possible on Reicofil and the Neumag SS system could match the hydrohead of Reicofil SMS, avoiding the need for the high melt-flow resins. 10-12 gsm fabrics were being produced. They could go lighter but then strength became a problem.

Aplix

… were now developing a new hook system optimised for the new Dounor loop laminate. This loop fabric was not yet commercial but prototypes were available for testing (see “Dounor” below) . Aplix have 2 plants in the USA , 2 in the EU and one in China . Where would the new hook/loop system be commercialised first? All options were open but Latin America seemed most likely.

Avgol

… who had announced an intention to acquire Fibreweb, had several personnel in deep discussion with the CEO of Fibreweb on the front of the stand on the first morning. They produce spunlaid PP from 3 lines in Mocksville (NC) where a 4 th line (R4) is on order, although this may not go ahead if the Fibreweb acquisition goes through. Avgol need to raise the finance to buy Fibreweb and their success is by no means taken for granted. They admit to being less busy than in the past having lost the Covidien business as a result of Covidien being acquired by First Quality Nonwovens. They expect to gain through FQ's inevitable losses of business as competitors of Covidien decide to take their business elsewhere.

Their plant in Israel has 2 old single-beam SB lines and 3 newer Reicofil lines. They also have a line in Russia and one in China . 10 gsm is the current lowest commercial basis weight, but they expect to go down to 8 gsm and even lighter for wettable SMS.

(At the time of writing Avgol had resolved not to proceed with the bid for Fibreweb)

BASF

…were selling their Luquafleece® superabsorbent fabric to IQTEX as “an intelligent system which adapts to suit weather conditions.” IQTEX process the fleece into a ventilation element (“Vayu Verde®) which is incorporated into the soles of shoes. In dry weather it is highly air-permeable, but in wet conditions the swelling SAP seals the layer and holds out the water. Further applications in rainwear, gloves and tents are envisaged.

Biax-fiberfilm

…were demonstrating their high-hole-density spinnerette making a 10 gsm PP meltblown with high strength, and possibly a higher fibre denier than is usual for meltblown. Their recent involvement with Reicofil and lyocell is mentioned below. Their President said they will be building a 1 metre wide pilot line, maybe in the USA , maybe in Germany .

Birla Viscose

Purocel, their heavy-metal free fibre made by a zinc-free viscose process was being positively marketed for the first time. This is not a new development, more a realisation that their use of aluminium rather than zinc in spinbath to meet Indian pollution laws could result in a marketable reduction in their heavy-metal content compared with their zinc-based competitors. Their 3 Indian factories output a total of 930 metric tonnes/day of zinc-free staple fibre in a wide range of deniers, lengths and colours. In Indonesia where they now concentrate the nonwovens types for export, they have 200 mt/d of zinc-free output, all for nonwovens, and an additional 330 mt/d for Asian textiles. Their Chinese (200 mt/d) and Thailand (350 mt/d) plants use zinc so of their total output of viscose (2030 mt/d) over half is zinc-free and hence low in heavy metal content compared with the competition. The Chinese plant is only producing for the local textile market. The Purocel is also available in a variety of spun-dyed shades.

Excel – promoted as a third generation “fully natural and organic” cellulosic fibre was in fact lyocell, despite the fact that the brochure appeared to be completely free of the word. Their lyocell is now being made on a line using a 10,000 tonne/year capacity List DTB dissolver, more similar to the early Courtaulds “Genesis” route than the current Tencel. More detail was hard to come by.

Their sales of viscose into textile markets had suffered a sharp downturn, apparently fashion related, and while the nonwoven demand was still strong, prices were suffering as the fashion fibre sought sales in the nonwoven market.

Dilo

… introduced Hyperlacing: extreme needlepunching using the newly developed Cyclopunch loom which has 20,000 needles per metre of board. Lightweight felts (down to 35 gsm) are said to be possible with fine denier fibres, and throughput speeds of up to 100m/min are achieved using the circular needle path. The system, clearly targeting a sector of the hydroentanglement market, uses little floor space, no water and very little energy. Applications in medical, hygiene and synthetic leather products are envisaged.

Dounor

…have a partnership with Aplix on the development of a new soft loop fabric which works with standard hooks for diaper fasteners. The samples shown appeared to be a simple laminate of a bulky card-thermal coverstock fabric with a spunbond, the lamination being done in patterned roll calendar. The printing was done on the laminate.

Dounor have 8 spunbond lines, 5 of which are Reicofil. The R4 line started last year and can make 8 gsm, although commercially it concentrates on the 10-20 gsm range. Weights below 8 gsm have been made, but the strengths are below the current specifications. They also have one R3.1 line and 2 R3 lines. 80% of their production goes to hygiene.

DS Fibres

…were now producing about 500 tonnes/year of PLA staple using Natureworks® polymer. The 6.7 dtex spun-dyed fibre was at present mainly used in pillow fillings, and was available at €3.50/kg, said to be a 50% premium over regular polyester. Sommer Needlepunch were making short-live Ecopunch® carpets out the DS fibre, mainly for use in exhibitions. They also reported great interest from IKEA who were adopting a “Bio-Trend” in their stores. DS were planning to be able to produce up to 2000 tonnes/year of PLA in counts down to 3.3 dtex.

EDANA

…has formed a Sustainability Committee to evaluate and communicate the sustainability performance of nonwovens and to identify ways of improving the sustainability of disposables – presumably without making them reusable. They are also in the process of developing a series of EU policy briefings to help members understand how the EU Sustainable Development Strategy and its Waste Incineration and Landfill policies (amongst many others) will impact the nonwovens industry. They have appointed Pierre Conrath as their Sustainability and Public Affairs manager. He commented that the European Commission would focus their attention first on energy generation, and then on the energy intensive industries. While disposable diapers were being challenged in the UK , he thought polypropylene as such was unlikely to attract EU attention. Life Cycle Assessment was the key and while in the past reusable and disposable diapers had been shown to have roughly equivalent LCA's, reusables, which required most energy for washing and drying, would show an improved LCA in future as the energy mix moved to more renewables.

The EU is making funding available for developments in Green Technology and Sustainable Production as part of the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technology. Examples were provided:

INTELTEX: – a radical approach to intelligent textiles – targets the development of thermal self regulating textiles, textiles with built-in strain sensors, and textiles with and ability to detect of toxic chemicals. This progam has EDANA as a partner, but none of the other partners were known to your correspondent.

STELLA: Stretchable Electronics for Large Area Applications. “As a consequence of the ambient intelligent vision where the citizen carries along more and more electronic systems near the body, wearable electronics are needed” The applications envisaged were “personnel (sic) healthcare” and fitness monitoring. ( Maybe we should read “soldier” for “citizen” )

ACTECO: – the eco-efficient activation of hyperfunctional surfaces. This targets the development of an ecological plasma treatment process to give surface activity which last for the lifetime of the final product.

EU Commission DG Research: Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Techniques.

Eastman

…introduced the EastONE™ S112 water dispersible co-polyester for the production of segment-pie or islands in the sea microfiber nonwovens. Unlike most other splittable fibres, the microfibers can be released by a simple water wash, the copolyester being recoverable from the water for reuse, and the water can be recycled.

Baiksan Lintex Corporation ( Korea ) is using EastONE™ in its new eco-friendly synthetic leather Cleanoble-E1™. Cleanoble is made of continuous filaments to give a premium leather of high strength and durability.

Elmarco

…claim their Nanospider systems are now producing nylon 6, polyvinylalcohol, polyethersulphone and metapolyaramid (PAA) fibres commercially. Production rates are 0.05 to 1 gm per metre width per minute per head, with 4 heads being used in a module. 1.6 meter wide lines have been supplied and wider systems would be possible. 10 m/min line speeds have been achieved, and this could be increased by using lines made up of several 4-head modules, but the relationships is not linear – 40 heads would not give 100 m/min. The webs can be electrospun onto paper and these jumbo rolls can be unwound at high speed into conversion processes. Filtration, sound absorbtion, medical, and electrical (capacitors and batteries) appear to be the main polymer applications, and titania nanofibres are being used in solar cells. Samples of spunbonds coated with various nanofibre layers were on display.

Polyurethane, polyester, PLA, PVA, chitosan and gelatin nanofibres have been made on Nanospider, but lyocell and cuprammonium rayon have proved impossible. Acetate rayon ought to be possible but the current systems are not safe with highly flammable solvents.

Their new Antimicroweb™ is a 5-layer assembly of spunbond and meltblown nylon and nanoweb-on-viscose to make facemasks with improved filtration efficiency for viruses, bacteria, fungi and yeasts. The nanoweb has an antimicrobial additive and is said to be cosmetic approved. 0.4 gsm of nanofibres are coated onto a 23 gsm viscose fibre web.

ExxonMobil

…is collaborating with Albis on the development of elastic fabrics from their Vistamaxx resins in a single step on a conventional spunbond line. The fabrics allow the production of hygienic absorbent products with the fit and feel of textile underwear.

Fibertex

…claim an 8 gsm capability for core-wrap from both R3 and R4 systems, but the bulk of their output is at 15 gsm, down from 17 gsm last year. They featured their recent JV with Innowo Print of Germany and will now provide prints on spunbond for top-sheet and leg gathers commencing early June. They see the trend to more and more graphics on diaper components as fundamentally important.

They have 2 R3 lines and 1 R4 line in Denmark and 1 R3 plus 1 R4 line in Malaysia , the latter being bico-capable. They admitted bico has not really taken off as expected due to the extra costs, PE now costing as much as PP, but it may well move ahead in future.

Fiberweb ( India ) Ltd

…use a 2 beam Reicofil 2 line (The first in India ) to produce PP spunbond for the usual range of hygiene, medical and agricultural uses. Interestingly they are unrelated to the other Fiberweb.

First Quality Nonwovens

…operate 6 spunbond lines, 2 of which are Reicofil 4, and they have another R4 on order. They produce down to 8gsm, not as a result of any R&D breakthough, but simply as a result of incremental improvements in the technology. They are working with PLA for environmental diapers but feel the economics of these will be against their large scale use. At present they are being made for the Whole Market chain store in the USA .

Fitesa

…part of the South American Petropar group announced plans for 2 new R4 lines to be built in the USA at a location to be decided at the end of June. This plant would have a capacity of 40,000 tonnes. They had recently installed a new R4 line in Brazil , and were now installing a second which would be operational in July bringing their capacity there to 50,000 tonnes/year. All the new installations were multibeam fine denier lines “at the highest level of the technology”. The growth they anticipated was partly the replacement of older R2 and R3 capacity in diapers, and partly market growth, particulary in incontinence products. Lightest on display? Novotex Soft Extra White, a hydrophilic SSS at 10gsm.

Fleissner

… claim 80 Aquajet hydroentanglement lines have been delivered so far in widths up to 5 metres and speeds up to 300m/min. All combinations of card-webs with tissue, air laid pulp and spunbonds can now be made and hydroentangled. They confirmed that 20 gsm was the lower limit for hydroentangling 1.5 denier fibres, and agreed that in principle a 10 gsm hydroentangled fabric could be made from a 0.75 denier web if it were strong enough to be removed from the forming wire.

Their SteamJet entanglement head was developed in conjunction with STFI Chemnitz and is currently working on a 1 metre wide pilot scale. Like the Mitsubishi Rayon Engineering system introduced at Anex 2006, this uses superheated steam to further bond, soften, sterilise and dry a web pre-bonded in the usual way by water jets. Fleissner claim it works with superabsorbent and other water sensitive fibres such as PVA.

Gulsan

… claim nothing lower than 14gsm spunbond, but this is available spun-dyed.

Kuraray's

… Felibendy™ high-bulk nonwovens were being made from Sophista™ sheath-core and/or side-side bicomponents. The sheath-core has an EVOH sheath on a polyester core and provides good bonding. The side-side uses a regular PET with a copolyester and is designed to give a very high level of microcrimp. The webs are bonded using a steamjet nozzle to melt the lowest melting point polymer, bulk the side-side fibres and to give some entanglement. These sponge-like structures could be pressure moulded into complex shapes and had high fluid uptake.

They were also displaying nanofibre nonwovens apparently produced from the islands-in-a-sea bicomponent with hundreds of islands.

Lenzing

… remain at full capacity but observe a softening of demand for viscose now that their new plant in China is on stream. Tencel sales remain strong, especially in nonwovens, and they are proceeding to add spinning capacity to utilize the additional 10,000 tonnes of dope capacity which has been available at Heiligenkreuz since its construction. They also plan to add 60,000 tonnes of new capacity, presumably viscose, to their South Pacific Viscose factory in Indonesia , in addition to the new site announced last year for India . Lenzing will give a further paper on sustainability and the life cycle analysis of cellulosics at the Orlando PIRA conference at the end of the month. Where their Paris paper dealt with Modal and Tencel and left questions about regular viscose unanswered, the Orlando paper will compare viscose, Tencel and PLA.

Their work with TITK and Nanoval on spunlaid lyocell appears to have ended in failure, but they are now using the Biax Fiberfilm meltblowing nozzle with greater success. Reicofil, who publicly announced that they would henceforth be using Biax nozzles because they were better than their own for lyocell, may be part of this newly emerging consortium.

MTS

…were claiming to able to air-lay down to 0.01 g/cc density using their new Dan-Web pilot line; this being an advance on the previous 0.05 g/cc limit. On closer inspection this density reduction was being achieved partly by pleating the air-lay web in a way similar to the old Cor-Web process (used to make cores for the J&J Serenity inco-pad in the 1980's.) Very soft webs (even before pleating) could be produced from 0.5 denier polyester and 0.8 denier bico, and these could be loaded with up to 90% SAP to give pulp-free absorbency. As well as cores, anti-static wipes superior to “Swiffer”, and various filters were possible. Automotive panels made out of compressed 100% PP air-laid were also possible.

Nanoval

… despite clearly being out of favour with their previous partners, Neumag (for PP) and TITK/Lenzing (for lyocell) had developed a new nozzle which they claimed produced several hundred fine filaments from each 1mm hole. Some aspects of the Biax Fiberfilm approach seemed evident. Throughputs per hole ranged from 2 to 20 g/min, the latter producing a spunbond with normal-sized filaments, whereas the former yielded an average fibre size of 2 microns. NBSK pulp could be used to make the lyocell dope and they had proved that longitudinal splitting of the fibre did occur (a single photo of a splitting fibre was shown). Furthermore they had “proved”, contrary to Lenzing's expectations, that the hemicellulose in NBSK stayed in the fibre and was not removed in washing. It was not clear who they would be collaborating with for dope supplies in future, but they have in the past had good relations with Birla.

Pegas

…were starting up their 3.2 metre wide SSMMMS R4 system this year (Line 9), their previous R4 (Line 8) being a 4.2 metre SSS system. Basis weights of 8 gsm were commercial now, and they had produced in the 6-7 gsm range just to prove it was possible. Fibre counts down to 0.9 denier were possible. Topsheet, backsheet and leg gathers had previously been made at 15 gsm, with core-wrap at 10-11 gsm. The new lines enabled all these product to be made 2 gsm lighter.

New products on display included both 8gsm SMS and 8gsm S made from 1.1 denier fibres. 80/20 S bico was available at 12 gsm.

PGI

…was showcasing its newly installed R4 spunbond line in Buenos Aires and its SMS line now under construction in San Luis Potosi – Mexico , which is scheduled to start producing in 2009. Their expanded range of protective apparel fabrics and garments now includes FR materials, and the Medisoft® Ultra™ medical fabrics are now being introduced into Europe .

Spinlace® which combines spunmelt, airlaid and hydroentangling technology (including patterning) was also being introduced into the European market in the form of disinfecting wipes

Reicofil

…announced they were collaborating with Biax Fiberfilm to get access to their high output melt-blowing heads for lyocell. They were planning a new 1 meter wide lyocell spun-laid line, which may be built in the Reicofil innovation center, or maybe in the Fraunhofer Institute where lyocell dope-making facilities exist. Would Weyerhauser continue to be involved? Maybe – discussions were in progress. Were they collaborating with any potential customers for the nonwovens? Not formally, but at least one had expressed a desire to be first with the new material.

Reicofil 4 continued to be the leading PP-to-hygiene nonwovens system, and there were no plans for an R5 yet. R4 is still selling well but almost entirely in countries to the east of Europe . The latest systems were capable of producing 8gsm SSS fabric at 800 m/min. Would they follow Neumag into widths above 5 meters? Probably not. In fact the trend may well be for narrower more flexible lines in future.

Rieter

… claim the installation of eight Perfobond lines. These spunbond systems are said to provide excellent uniformity at low weights while giving isotropic properties. One beam gives the quality and strength of two beams from the leading supplier. 5000 tonnes/year per beam is possible at an energy consumption of less than 1 kwh/beam.

SAAF

…claimed to make 30,000 tonnes/year of hygiene, medical and agricultural nonwovens using their Reicofil 3 and Reicofil 4 multibeam lines. The bico-capable R3 was concentrating on medical grades, where their off-line treatments allowed the production of IPA resistant and antistatic fabrics. They were collaborating with and supplying Ahlstrom in this sector. The new R4 line is also bico-capable and is currently producing SS types down to 11 gsm for all diaper components. They will start up the meltblowing heads in August.

SPIC

…part of the Nuqul Group – Jordan, showed a range of SS spunbonds down to 12 gsm (hydrophilic), and SMS down to 13.5 gsm with a green pigment and a 140mm hydrohead.

Spinnbau

…suffering from the loss of the card-thermal market to spunbond, were happy to discuss the limitations of this technology compared with spunbond. They could certainly build 6 metre wide lines capable of running at 300-350 m/min on 15 gsm polypropylene and make softer, better looking nonwovens than a spunbond line. Unfortunately the strengths of such fabrics would be below that now required for the diaper production process. Forgetting the strength issue, they could go even lighter, 6-7 gsm being possible from a single doffer with 0.7 denier polyester fibres. However here they ran into the density disadvantage of PET c.f. PP and the fact that it would be harder to thermal bond. They had achieved 7.5 gsm lyocell webs from a single doffer but did not think this would work in hydroentanglement. (See also “Fleissner”)

Their latest commercial card-thermal installation was running in Turkey and was 5.1 metres wide processing 1.7-2.2 dtex PP to 15 gsm at 300-350 m/min.

United Saudi Nonwovens

…a subsidiary of the SABIC and NIC companies claimed to be flat-out and sold-out. They still use card-thermal technology with a 14 gsm minimum potential and were able to produce both coloured nonwovens and blends of PP with viscose. Despite their petrochemical parents they had no access to locally produced polypropylene staple fibre. So they ship PP resin to Korea for conversion into fibre and having processed these fibres into hygiene nonwovens in Saudi, proceed to sell to Unicharm in Japan (and presumably to Unicharm Gulf Hygienic). Their “Superclean specially treated cloths” were targeted at the dry Swiffer sector.

Waxman Fibres Ltd

… a UK distributor of Kaneka Corporation specialities such as Kanekaron FR fibres, introduced So Ch'I, a fibre containing Chitosan, So Soft, a blend of cellulose and milk protein, and So Absorbent, a superabsorbent fibre. Claims made were as follow
So Ch'i: Inhibits bacteria and odour, purifies water, absorbs heavy metals, is biodegradable, strengthens the body's immune system, promotes lysozyme secretion, accelerates wound healing, reduces cholesterol, and is haemostatic
So Soft: is packed with 18 natural amino acids, including eight “essentials”, is environmentally friendly and kind to the skin.
So Absorbent: is reusable, absorbs 150 times its own weight, has a high rate of absorbtion – 100 times its own weight in 10 seconds, has high retention under pressure, is insoluble in water and most solvents, returns “almost” to original state after drying, and is processable on standard equipment.

All appear to be viscose-based alloys.

Weyerhaeuser

… reported dissolving pulp prices were now around ~$1050/tonne with 10% discounts being available for the higher-hemi Pearl™ variety. This was being used at about 15% of the pulp blend by viscose producers interested in saving a few pennies, and was a variation on their Peach™ process. The resulting viscose fibres were said to be more absorbent and faster to dye. Their Peach™ high-hemi pulp for lyocell (a purified Kraft) could now be used 100% in the Mobile Tencel plant, and in blend at Grimsby Tencel, but was less viable in Europe due to the extra transport costs.

Their collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute and Reicofil to make spun-laid lyocell was likely to change as a result of the discovery that the Biax Fiberfilm nozzles were better for lyocell than the Reicofil nozzles. This situation was evolving, but the leaflets for Lyoweb™, the product of the Weyeraeuser/Fraunhofer IAP collaboration were still being distributed.

Calvin Woodings

25/4/2008

Lenzing Botanic Symposium Photos

 

 

 

 

Lenzing Botanic Symposium: Paris – 21/2/2008

Life cycle assessment of Man-Made Cellulosics

Li Shen of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands has been carrying out a new life-cycle assessment of fibres for Lenzing. Dr Josef Schmidtbauer, who was present in the audience, was her main contact in the company. Figures for Modal and Tencel were the only new data presented here, and any comparisons with other fibres such as PET, PP and cotton used Boustead's 2005 data for those fibres. The “Tencel 2012” figures were derived on the assumption that in 2012, Tencel would be made using an integrated tree-to-fibre plant process powered by the incineration of Municiple Solid Waste. System boundaries were given as a) Cradle to Lenzing Austria factory gates, and b) cradle to gate plus an energy credit based on the assumption that post consumer MSW incineration recovered 60% of the energy content.

Environmental Impacts evaluated were: • Non-renewable energy
• Global Warming (CO2 emissions)
• Land use for biomass production
• Water Use
• the CML (Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden ) environmental indicators: abiotic depletion, human toxicity, fresh water ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, photochemical oxidants, acidification and eutrophication.

For Non-renewable energy , the net gigajoules/tonne of fibre were lowest for Tencel 2012 at 13gj/t followed by Modal at 16 gj/t. US or Chinese cotton was next at 31gj/t, with Tencel being the highest of the cellulosics with 34/gj. European PP required 56 gj/t and European polyester came in at 78 gj/t.

For Global Warming Potential , the net tonnes CO 2 equivalent per tonne of fibre were 0.9 for Modal, 1.1 for Tencel 2012, 2.1 for Tencel, 2.8 for cotton, 4.3 for PP and 5.5 for polyester.

For Land Use , a distinction between agricultural land which can be used for food, and forest land which can't has to be made, and then this can only apply to the cellulosics. Here the world average agricultural land use for cotton is 1.07 hectares per tonne, compared with 0.8 hectares for US and Chinese cotton. Lenzing Modal requires 0.6 hectares per tonne, while Tencel requires 0.2 hectares/tonne. Compared with using a tonne of polyester, using a tonne of cotton would save 57 gigajoules/hectare/tonne fibre of non-renewable energy, the figures for Modal, Tencel and Tencel 2012 being 108, 210 and 340 respectively.

For Water Use , PP and PET were best with 76 and 130 tonnes/tonne fibre, and US/Chinese cotton worst with 5730 tonnes/tonne fibre. Tencel used 265 tonnes and Modal 494 tonnes.

The CML Environmental indicators were assessed relative to cotton (index 100):

Abiotic depletion for Tencel 2012 on the same basis was 40, compared 110 for current Tencel and Modal and 240 for PET and PP.

Human Ecotoxicity for the non-cotton cellulosics was about one third of the cotton value. PET was 75% and PP 20%.

Freshwater Ecotoxicity and Terrestrial Ecotoxicity were negligible for all fibres but cotton. Tencel 2012 had the least impact of all (>3% of cotton)

Photochemical Oxidation levels were comparable for the cellulosics, but PET was up at 150% of cotton and PP was 170%.

Acidification was below 50% of the cotton value for all fibres but PP (70%)

Eutrophication was below 10% of the cotton value for all fibres but PET (15%)

In an attempt to arrive at a single score to sum up the above, Ms Lin had assumed equal weighting for each of the above impacts and summed them, the following scores being relative to US/Chinese cotton (Index 100).

Western EU Polyester 80
Western EU PP 70
Tencel Austria 42
Modal Austria 38
Tencel Austria 2012 28

Attempts to apply weightings (e.g. NOGEPA – Netherlands Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Association normalisation method - 1995) to allow the single scores to better reflect the relative importance of each of the environmental impacts did not change the order, but showed cotton in an even worse light as a result of amplifying the importance of terrestrial and fresh-water ecotoxicity. On this normalised basis the man-made cellulosics have about a tenth of the environmental impact of intensively farmed cotton, with Tencel 2012 being a significant improvement on current Tencel and Modal.

Challenging Sustainability

Dr Alfred Strigl of the Austrian Institute for Sustainable Development recycled his Outlook 2006 paper and listed the challenges of the age of rising temperatures and sea-levels:
•1 to 3 o C average temperature rise by 2050.
• Sea-level to go up by 0.1 to 0.3 metres by 2050.
• More natural catastrophes due to more energetic climate.
• Water shortages due to run-off pattern changes.
• World population to rise from 6.4 billion now to 10 billion in 2050.
• Along with rising population come issues related to food and water, hygiene, energy, information, human rights, terrorism, mass migrations and disease.

New points in this talk:• US credit market debt has been rising since 1950 and moved above 3 times USA GDP in 2005 ($33.6 trillion debt)
• US “Genuine Progess Indicator” (whatever that is) has been declining since 1970
• The 3 rd world pays $135million/day interest on its loans compared with receipts of $57 million/day in aid.

The annual increase in population is equivalent to a new country the size of Germany while annual soil degradation means an area the size of Germany becomes unproductive desert. Food production is declining and the rate of loss of species, especially marine species means the natural food chain diminishes. Using a financial analogy, we've managed to live off the Earth's interest until 1975, but since then have been consuming both interest and capital, and the capital reserves are now dangerously low. The Club of Rome “World 3” model predicts that by 2040, on a “Business as Usual” basis:
• Natural resource availability becomes critical.
• The persistent pollution index reaches 10 times the 2000 level
• Food availability peaks and starts to collapse
• Industrial output peaks and starts to collapse
• World population peaks at about 10 billion and collapses to 3 billion by 2100

Our only hope is that humanity is intelligent enough to deal with the problems it has caused by now replacing growth targets with sustainability targets. Assuming an immediate “Earth turns around to Sustainability” basis, the same Club of Rome model predicts:
• Natural resource availability does not become critical until 2100.
• Industrial output levels off and stabilises at 2015 levels.
• Food availability declines slightly to 2040 and then increases as…
• Persistent Pollution Index peaks at 4 times the 2000 level and begins to decline from 2040.
• World population stabilises at around 7.5 billion.

The ability to feed the growing population is becoming critical. Actual world grain production per capita had been declining since its 1983 peak of 342 kgs/person and stood at 290 kgs/person in 2003. Assuming it is all used for food, and not as as source of bio-ethanol, this is enough to feed 2.5 billion people at US levels of consumption or 12 billion people at the average Indian level of consumption. Ocean Biomass (seafood availability) is now at 40% of the level of 1950 and on a business as usual basis will be zero in 30 years. Meat production now accounts for 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions, is totally unsustainable, and must decline.

On the bright side, a Sustainability Megatrend is beginning to appear in Germany :• The land area used for growing renewable resources has increase eightfold since 1993 (to 1.6 million hectares)
• The number of “bio” or “organic” labelled products has increased from 1000 to 35,000 between 2001 and 2006
• Spending on organic foods has trebelled since 1997
• Ethical investments in Germany , Austria , Switzerland and Luxembourg are rising exponentially and are up tenfold on 1997.
• Sustainability issues are now reported in 2235 German company annual reports compared with 360 in 1997.
• The market for Fair Trade products in Austria is up 5-fold since 2002.

For Dr Strigl, a Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) should be adopted by all if we are to avert disaster. There were no questions.

Botanic Essences In Lenzing Fibres

Dr Choldwig Franz, Head of the Institute for Applied Botany and Pharamcognosy at the University of Vetinary Medicine, Vienna Austria has been using powerful analytical techniques to see if he can detect traces of plant chemistry in viscose and Tencel fibres at the behest of Lenzing who feel they might use such traces to market their fibres. The beech wood used to make Lenzing viscose in Austria contains lipids such as triglycerides, steryl esters, sterols and fatty acids; aliphatic acids such as stearic, oleic, linoleic and palmitic; along with glycerol, xylitol, monosaccharides and catechin. The eucalyptus used for Tencel contains these and others too numerous to list here. Many are bioactive with anti-oxidant or antimicrobial properties. Despite the aggressive fibre making processes most of the substances could be detected in extracts of the final fibres by HPLC, GC-Mass Spec, and spectrophotographic techniques – at the micrograms per gram level. The most important substances detectable in the fibers were squalene, sterols, phenols and fatty acids. (Squalene is known as a steroid precursor and is widely used in cosmetics and food supplements as an antioxidant – playing a vital role in quenching free-radical oxygen in skin.)

Interestingly, most species of pulp and the fibres made from them showed identical patterns of chemicals with minor quantitative differences, so these “chemical fingerprints” could be used to identify specific fibres and their wood sources.

Asked about similar studies on cotton, Dr Franz said they had been done, adding that cotton was the source of one of the potent male contraceptive chemicals. Asked why one of his slides showed Tencel with 3 times more squalene than the pulp from which it was made, he said this was impossible and thought there must be a mistake. Had water extracts of fibre been tested? No, but he agreed that the whole area of interaction between fibres and body fluids was worthy of further study.

In summing up, Hess Natur were asked if they would now consider using Tencel and Modal viscose in their natural fibre range. Only if a careful comparison with organic cotton looks favourable. Representations would then have to be made to the International Natural Textiles Association.

A Holistic Approach to Sustainability

Detlef Fischer of Bluesign Technologies Switzerland introduced their new quality standard intended to allow producers of textiles to meet higher safety and environmental standards. Consumers currently assume retailers are managing all possible risks in their supply chain, and of course this is rarely the case. In fact according to a recent survey, 67% of the raw material MSDS's are defective and misleading. Bluesign intend to open up the entire textile supply chain, make it transparent to the consumer and apply strict controls to all the inputs (and any outputs which are not part of the product) before deciding which products or brands are worth awarding the Bluesign® standard of health, safety and environmental excellence.

Where current quality labelling schemes are based on an analysis of the finished product, Bluesign will use Input Stream Management, and test every aspect of the manufacturing process. If an input is non-hazardous it gets a Blue rating, if it's hazardous and better materials could be used it gets a Black rating. Grey ratings signify that the material is not ideal but currently represents the best available technology. The Bluesign standard cannot be awarded to products with any Black inputs.

Purchasing textiles with the Bluesign® label will thus guarantee the consumer that these textiles are made:
• In an environmentally friendly manner
• Free from any toxic contamination – “guaranteed safe for the consumer”
• With maximum cost efficiency – “minimal waste of energy and natural resources”
• With minimal pollution - “absolute observance of air and water pollution limits”
• With minimal carbon footprint – “integration and optimisation of energy use to ensure great reductions in CO 2 production”
• With high standards of occupational health and safety for the workers in the supply chain.

Bluetool™ software has been developed to allow raw material and component suppliers to easily determine whether their products would meet the Bluesign® input standard.

Bluefinder™ is a web-based database to allow authorised system partners* to select alternative raw materials which would meet Bluesign® requirements.

Asked if Bluesign® would replace the Oekotex standard, Mr Fishcher thought it would not, because Oekotex focussed on an analysis of the finished product where Bluesign® focussed on the production route.

* A global network of producers, research institutes and audited testing institutes involved in the textile supply chain were being controlled by an Advisory Board comprising “representatives from science, politics, industry and trade, as well as consumer and environmental organisations”.

Sustainable Natural Garments

Rolf Hermann of Hess Natur Germany said his company used only natural fibres and avoided any resins or chemical treatments. Any cotton or linen used had to be organic, the cotton from Africa or Turkey and the linen from the new organic linen farms in Germany . Again, a holistic approach was used to choose materials, ethical sourcing and fair-trade pricing being an important part of the philosophy. Any wool used was pure and new, and had been subjected to a “mechanical plasma treatment” to give 40 0 C washability. 75% of their supply chain is within Europe to minimise “fabric miles” and where offshore processing is used it is audited against the following requirements:
• No forced labour
• No discrimination in employment
• No exploitation of child labour
• Freedom of association
• Legally binding employment relationship.
• Fair wages and regular working hours in humane conditions

The resulting garments did cost more, but responsible consumers were now as likely to pay a premium for sustainability as they once were for high fashion. Their 100% organic denim jeans were if anything slightly less costly than comparable fashion brands. They carried the following swing tickets which were proving attractive to consumers :
• Fair trade certified cotton
• The Fair Wear Foundation – members work to enhance the working conditions in the supply chain
• Global Organic Textile Standard
• Naturtextil Certificate

Waterproofing rainwear had presented a problem so Hess Natur had reverted to the old stearin and beeswax system. Goretex was described as hopelessly over-engineered for everyday outerwear.

Going green in the Textile World

Marcia Zaroff, founder of Under the Canopy USA is dedicated to providing the consumer with a fusion of fashion, wellness and social responsibility, and hence specialises in providing a range of “cool organic fashion” without compromising quality or performance. She stressed the significant link between organic food and organic garments: not only did they appeal to the same consumers, but 60% of the weight of the cotton harvest goes into food as oil. Her preferred fibres were organic and Fair Trade versions of wool, cotton, silk, angora and linen, but she did also use Tencel, bamboo, and seaweed. Dyes had to be low impact, indigo was recycled. All suppliers had to demonstrate social responsibility, fair labour policies and animal rights as core values. Miscellaneous points made:
• The US consumer feels he has more impact on the planet's health by buying the right things than he does by voting.
• The organic fibre market was growing rapidly – at 44% pa between 2005 and 2010 according to the first line on a slide and at “an average annual growth rate of 116%” on the next.
• Organic cotton was a $245million business in 2002 and will be a $6.8 billion business by 2010 - presumably at retail level.
• Organic cotton sales more than trebled from 20 million in 2005 to nearly 70 million in 2007 - no units provided.
• Organic cotton needs to be certified: some unscrupulous suppliers claim organic if they avoid pesticide spray for the year's production.
• Nike target 5% organic cotton use by 2010
• “every time we increase costs by doing the right thing we make more profit” ( Patagonia Clothing ).

Her company partnered with the Environmental Media Association, NRDC, the Rainforest Foundation, the Rainforest Alliance, the Soil Association, the Rodale Research Institute, Amnesty International, Stop Global Warming, the Waterkeepers Alliance and the CA Coalition for Clean Air.

Asked why she used bamboo fibre, Ms Zaroff said this fast growing weed brings an interesting new handle. Did she know it was viscose rayon made from bamboo pulp in one of the more polluting and environmentally unfriendly Chinese factories? No – she thought it came direct from plant. Another audience member commented that the Chinese are working on a new mechanical extraction process to make a bamboo bast fibre, but any fine fibre with a soft handle is made using the rayon route.

Asked about US Organic cotton she said US farmers find it hard to go organic: they lease the land and can't invest in building soil quality. They also harvest mechanically – a process with a large carbon footprint. So if you want to buy certified organic cotton, invest in, and buy direct from farms - offshore.

Calvin Woodings

PIRA's Future of Sustainable Hygiene Products – Prague - Dec 2007

Contents

1. Global Hygiene Trends
2. The Holistic Approach to Personal Care
3. Organic Cotton
4. Sustainable Procurement in the NHS
5. Sustainable Procurement of Forest Products
6. Sustainable Production
7. Time for Green Thinking
8. Innovation in Sustainability
9. Recycling Hygiene Products
10. Disposing of Hygiene Products
11. Measuring Biodegradability
12. A new Biodegradable Superabsorbent
13. Enhancing Sustainable Performance
14. Wound-care developments

Key Points

• Disposal of used diapers in landfill is likely to be banned as moves to exclude biodegradable materials from European landfills take effect over the next few years.

• Disposal of used diapers in the biodegradable waste stream is unlikely to be allowed due to their high content of non-biodegradable materials.

• Incineration of use diapers is unacceptable due to high energy input needed.

• The Knowaste used-diaper recycling process appears to be gaining ground in Europe . The main payback is now from recycling PP into roof tiles and pulp/faeces into biogas.

• Used diaper collection logistics remain the key problem. A diaper tax could be the answer. Calls for the “producer pays” principal to be applied to diaper disposal appear to be getting more strident.

• Organic food's success over the last 10 years could be a model for the future of currently high-price, niche “organic” sustainable disposables.

• Purchasers of organic food will also try premium-priced sustainable hygiene products if they are available in the same store.

• Organic cotton tampons are said to improve the well-being of users. Natracare, the manufacturer, now selling in 45 countries, will not use US-grown organic cotton because farming and certification standards are too low.

• Consumers appreciate the carbon-footprint labelling which is emerging on biodegradable hygiene products. Water-footprinting could be the next differentiation.

• Dow and Crystalsev are collaborating on the production of 350,000 tonnes/year of polyethylene from sugar cane.

• A biodegradable superabsorbent based on styrene maleic anhydride polymer in a biocomposite with gelatin is said to cost less than PAA and have similar properties. It can also be spun into fine soft fibres.

Global Hygiene Trends

Adrian Atterby of Euromonitor International (UK) provided an updated version of the paper given several outings by Euromonitor at disposables conferences this year. The notable points this time were as follows:-

A resurgence of regenerated cellulosics.

Previously:
Introduction
Diaper Trends
Wipes and Femcare Trends
Raw material and Manufacturing Trends

Globalisation and Climate Change
Peak Oil?

The consumers view
Future Diaper Raw Materials

In the last 2 years, massive expansions in viscose production, and the pulp required to produce it have been announced – totalling in excess of half a million tonnes of new fibre. Surprisingly none of the expansion involves the more eco-friendly lyocell route. In the absence of this new capacity, viscose and lyocell prices have risen sharply and the market is currently undersupplied due to high demand in textiles as well as nonwovens. The world’s leading producer, Lenzing is enoying full production and good prices. 2007 will be its best year ever, and they are leading the expansion.

(Source: The Saurer Report 2006-7)

Research into cellulose and its derivatives is increasing. To take a few highlights from recent conferences:

• Processes potentially capable of giving low cost cellulosic nonwovens are now being evaluated on a pilot scale at TITK and Fraunhofer.
• At TITK, Lenzing and Nanoval are co-operating to produce a “melt-blown” version of lyocell using the Laval nozzle to split the fibres into micro-fibres.
• At Fraunhofer, Weyerhaeuser and Reicofil are using a 60 cm Reicofil melt-blowing nozzle as a spinnerette to produce spun-laid lyocell.
• These processes work with low-quality dope from paper-pulp and the cellulose can be more easily alloyed with high levels of other materials such as PP.
• Ionic liquids have made dopes with 20% cellulose from which Tencel-like fibres and alloys with other polymers have been spun on lyocell pilot equipment.
• 30% solutions of cellulose carbamate in NMMO have been converted to fibers with tenacities above 60 cN/tex. (These solutions are anisotropic above 20%)
• Cellulose nanofiber fiber webs for use in medicine and cosmetics have been produced by the surface culture of bacteria.
• Cellulose nanofiber webs made by electrospinning appear to have a total free absorbency of 2000 gms/gm.
• Work continues on the dissolution of enzyme degraded cellulose directly in caustic soda.

Could cellulosics really replace polypropylene as the workhorse fibre for disposable nonwovens?

As we have seen, the ecological logic is sound:

• Cellulose is the only really abundant fibre-forming polymer produced and disposed within the carbon cycle. (but don’t forget alginic acid and chitin remain to be fully exploited.)
• Pure cellulose in the form of cotton, grown organically maybe in Africa, has the least environmental impact of any fibre and would be a low-cost yet valuable crop.
• If cellulose must be grown on land which can not be used for food crops, it must first be pulped, dissolved and regenerated to form useable fibres.
• Numerous processes exist for making cellulosic fibres from biomass, and all are potentially carbon-neutral because the parts of the biomass unsuitable for including in the finished fibres can be used to power the pulping, dissolution and fibre spinning operations.
• Existing dry-lay, wet-lay and air-lay nonwoven process could convert these fibres into nonwovens provided hydroentanglement is the bonding system.
• Surface acetylation of cellulose fibres can allow some thermoplasticity for thermal bonding purposes if the extra small monetary and ecological expense can be justified. (Acetic acid is a by-product of the pulping operation.)
• Cellulose can be spunbonded, literally, in various ways to make self-bonded nonwovens, or spun laid where hydroentanglement would be the bonding mechanism of choice.
• Assembling finished disposables without the help of thermoplasticity would be tricky, but fabrics can be glued or even stitched together – by computer-controlled high pressure water needles - in the same way as these needles at even higher pressure are used as cutters.
• Cellulosic fibres can be converted into superabsorbents, and such products are already used in wound care. (Cellulosic nonwovens could be treated on one side to form a self-sealing breathable backsheet.)
• Cellulosic disposables would be fully compatible with sewage systems, especially if the fibres are short and lightly bonded, or if the products are shredded through a waste disposal unit attached to the toilet.

As an aside here, any biodegradable waste could be disposed of through shredders into the sewage system and anaerobically digested at the sewage farm to yield methane for power generation.

• Maybe as new infrastructure is developed and old infrastructure renewed, the installation of this option would take a load off landfill and the reduce the environmental costs of collecting and transporting rubbish from homes to landfill or aerobic composters.
• If organic matter – including urine and faeces – could be kept out of the solid waste, the collection of the remaining rubbish could be very infrequent.
• The life cycle analysis of the disposable diaper could be improved. Diapers would be credited not just with the energy generated from their mainly cellulose construction but also with that from the excrement they have saved from the landfill.

In Conclusion

For the last 40 years, the dramatic growth of the nonwovens and disposables industry has depended on increasing use of fossil reserves. Consumers have accepted convenience products based on unsustainable, non-biodegradable materials requiring landfill disposal. Climate change and its effects are changing consumers attitude to disposables and the continuing oil supply/demand imbalance will encourage a reversion to polymers from biomass. Flushable disposables based on cellulose would be sustainable, and recyclable to energy in sewage treatment.

Calvin Woodings

Future Diaper Raw Materials?

Previously:
Introduction
Diaper Trends
Wipes and Femcare Trends
Raw material and Manufacturing Trends

Globalisation and Climate Change
Peak Oil?

The consumers view

While synthetic polymers account for only a small percentage of the oil usage, and could be obtained from coal or tar more easily than could transportation fuels, they will become increasingly costly to a point where the use of natural polymers and their derivatives will become viable again. Furthermore as consumers demand ever-more low-carbon-footprint biodegradable products based on renewable raw materials the case for such a reversion to the natural will increase.
PLA?
Polylactic acid (an aliphatic polyester) has the undeniable advantage of low temperature thermoplasticity which makes it an excellent candidate for replacing polypropylene in existing nonwoven processes – whenever the price falls to parity with PP having taken the different polymer densities into account, i.e. on a cents per cubic centimetre basis. It currently sells at a premium into products where claims of “corn-based” “natural” , “sustainable” and “compostable” have value, and today this is mainly into packaging films and mouldings, wipes, coverstocks and textiles. The process used to make it does require more energy than a fossil-fuelled polyester and the current product alleviates this by carbon-offsetting. One could also argue that the naturalness associated with corn is compromised by its complete depolymerisation to dextrose followed by fermentation to lactic acid which is then polymerised to PLA. There is also the issue of the current process needing prime food growing acreage and intesive fertilisation. Future processes based on waste biomass will be significantly more sustainable in the long term.
Cotton?
Cotton is at the other end of the naturalness scale to PLA in that nature provides a finished fibre almost ready to be carded. Unfortunately current low-cost cotton production requires extensive petrochemotherapy and irrigation and current pricing depends on government subsidy. Furthermore, and unfortunately for nonwovens producers, it needs bleaching and special finishing if it is to be processed efficiently into absorbent products. The more attractive, sustainable and eco-friendly organic cotton with its lower yields even from irrigated agricultural land could remain far too costly and scarce for most nonwoven applications and for some time will be used primarily specialities and in high value fashion textiles. If however a subsidised expansion of organic cotton production could be part of some grander scheme, such as eliminating US cotton subsidies and reducing poverty in Africa then ethical cotton nonwovens could emerge as a more mainstream raw material. If future consumers realise that genetic modification is just a speeded up version of the natural process by which all life evolved, they may be more favourably disposed to the man-made version of GM now becoming capable of transforming our ability to live a carbon-neutral existence. Organic cotton production would be an immediate beneficiary of the new mind-set.
Other Cellulosics?
Genetic modification of trees and other biomass could likewise transform the quality and yield of cellulose from agriculture, and may even allow its efficient production from bacteria. For now, cellulose is produced in the cell walls of vegetation when sugars produced by chlorophyll-catalysed photosynthesis are polymerised by enzymes to form both lignin and cellulose. The industrial grade of cellulose used to make fibre comes from tree-farms, where specially chosen species can be grown from sapling to maturity in as little as 10 years. New trees can grow from the stumps of the cut trees, and this happens on marginal land, generally unsuitable for food crops and without the intensive use of fertilisers or pesticides. The best tree farms yield in excess of 2.5 tonnes of pure cellulose per acre per year. For comparison, cotton growing at its most intensive yields about 0.7 tonnes/acre and needs good soil. Using trees on an industrial scale can attract the wrath of environmentalists. This is of course no worse ecologically than non-intensive farming but it is important to put the usage of trees as a raw material into the correct perspective. Using very round numbers to gain an approximate impression of the impacts involved:· 100 billion tonnes of vegetation grow and decay annually on land. This represents about 12% of the planets total production of vegetation, the majority being produced in the oceans.
· 12% of this land-based vegetation is in the form of wood (trees).
· Of this annual growth of 12 billion tonnes of wood, a maximum of 4 billion tonnes is removed by man. Half of this is burnt, either as fuel or to clear land for agriculture. The other half is used by Industry. (Compare this with 6 billion tonnes of fossil reserves "mined" and burned each year.)
· Of the 2 billion tonnes of wood used by industry, half becomes timber in saw mills, and half is used raw.
· Of the 1 billion tonnes used raw, half goes into construction (pit-props, telegraph poles etc) and half is converted into pulp and chipboard.
· Of this 0.5 billion tonnes, 0.4 billion tonnes of wood become wood-pulp for the paper, board, fibre, film and chemicals industry.
· A significant proportion of this pulpmill feedstock (up to 40% in some areas) comes from forest thinnings, and saw mill waste and 6% from non-pulp sources such as straw, bagasse, hemp and cotton. This feedstock yields about 0.25 billion tonnes of pulp.
· About 0.004 billion tonnes of this pulp output are a high quality dissolving grade for forming into fibres, films, water soluble polymers and chemicals. Dissolving grade pulp is perhaps better described as industrial grade cellulose polymer, and should be considered alongside the polyester or nylon polymer chips which are the feedstocks of the synthetic fibre plants.
· Rayon manufacture consumes 0.003 billion tonnes of this cellulose, with about 2/3rds going into staple and one third into filament and tow (including acetate).
· If ever the use of trees to make fibres on this scale becomes unsustainable, we could always farm the oceans for seaweed and make the closely related alginate fibres, or even produce chitin fibres from insects or shellfish.

So, the cellulose fibres, which thrived before we learned how to make fibres from cheap petrochemicals can thrive once again as the price, both monetary and ecological, of unsustainable raw materials increases further. Since the development of efficient hydroentanglement bonding processes, they can be converted into pure, soft cellulosic nonwovens which at first sight could provide consumers with the ecofriendly biodegradable nonwovens they
Unfortunately they are not thermoplastic so conversion processes will need adapting, and they are not yet available in the form of spunbonds so the cost differentials c.f. polypropylene spunbonds will be higher. Furthermore they are inherently wettable and will need finishing with hydrophobic materials to allow them to achieve the surface dryness levels needed for diapers. These problems are soluble.. After all, about 40 years ago polypropylene was thought by some to be incapable of replacing rayon in diaper coverstock because it was impossible to card, and far too hydrophobic for coverstock use.

Next: Cellulose Resurgent

Elmarco Nanofibres 2007 photos