Jeanologia: denim garments with a close-to-zero water and chemicals footprint
The textile industry is a water-intensive industry with 93 billion of m3/year (4 % of the total water consumption in the world). The dyeing and textile finishing are the processes that consume water and generate pollution the most.
In this scenario, the Spanish company Jeanologia is currently spearheading the greatest challenge facing the textile industry: achieving total dehydration and detoxification in denim industry. With Mission Zero the company is transforming the way jeans are made, from fabric to finish, minimising the use of water and chemicals to a close-to-zero target thanks to disruptive technologies reducing water consumption in the finishing of garments from 100 litres to just one.
The LIFE ANHIDRA project, receiving support under LIFE programme, is playing a crucial role in the Mission Zero challenge to reduce water consumption to just one litre thanks to an H2Zero water treatment system developed by Jeanologia to produce zero waste. It proposes an innovative, efficient, and effective solution to water regeneration and reuse in situ in the textile finishing process.
The project, coordinated by Jeanologia, develops a demonstrator installed on an industrial scale at the Portuguese textile finishing company Pizarro in collaboration with AITEX. It is based on a pilot closed-loop system that treats water, leaving it in optimal conditions for reuse in the garment finishing and washing processes, without any need for additional chemicals to treat the incoming water.
The LIFE ANHIDRA project demonstrates that new sustainable garment’s finishing processes are feasible.
- This new alternative concept of closed-loop water reuse allows a reduction of water use by 92 % and almost complete reuse of water (98 %), thus preventing the discharge of pollutants and reducing the use of chemicals.
- The project allows water reuse in industrial washing machines over 60 days of operation, saving up to 21,000 m3 during this period, and 123,408 m3 per year in a single industrial facility.
- Another advantage is the re-use and valorization of the recovered textile fibres.