Italian yarn maker Aquafil has inked a multi-year agreement with chemical manufacturing company Genomatica to develop caprolactam, a key ingredient to producing 100% sustainable nylon, for use in apparel and fibres.
The collaboration aims to further develop Genomatica’s GENO CPL process to produce caprolactam using plant-based renewable ingredients, rather than the crude oil-derived materials traditionally used by the nylon industry.
Used in a variety of nylon-based products including apparel and carpets, caprolactam has a worldwide market of more than 5m tonnes per year. As the licensor of the GENO CPL process, Genomatica aims to provide an environmentally-friendly way to make caprolactam with better economics, including for smaller-scale plants.
In addition, the firm will enable licensees and their customers to differentiate themselves by offering a more sustainable bio-based product whose performance, it says, will be fully comparable with nylon made from crude oil-derived caprolactam and which will not require any machine or process adjustments by the nylon supply chain.
Like Aquafil’s Econyl process, GENO CPL eliminates the significant amount of by-products common to most crude oil-derived caprolactam production, and will allow producers to diversify their sources in terms of raw material.
Aquafil, a leading producer of nylon yarn, launched the Econyl Regeneration System in 2011 to produce nylon made from 100% regenerated waste, diverting it away from landfills and oceans through the recovery of abandoned fishing nets and other discarded nylon waste materials. The recovered nylon waste offers the same quality and performance as traditional nylon, and can be regenerated an infinite number of times without any loss in quality.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataLike the Econyl process, GENO CPL eliminates the significant amount of by-products common to most crude oil-derived caprolactam production, and will allow producers to diversify their sources in terms of raw material.
“As proven by the success of Econyl, consumers and manufacturers look forward to opportunities to play an active role in the circular economy,” says Giulio Bonazzi, chairman and CEO of Aquafil. “We aim to be a leader of sustainability for nylon, and we are excited by the opportunity to be the first to bring the benefits of this new technology to our customers, which is perfectly in line with our commitment to creating sustainable products. Genomatica brings the technology, innovation and track record to help us achieve this.”
Genomatica is inviting other leaders in the nylon value chain to join its bio-nylon programme and gain access to its technologies and supply of bio-based chemicals.
