This new Horizon Europe project called Threading-CO₂ intends to bring to the market high-quality polyester textile products from the valorisation of CO₂ waste streams. It aims to scale-up and demonstrate its first-of-its-kind technology producing high-quality commercially viable sustainable PET textile products from CO₂ waste streams at industrial scale. The overall objective is to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the textile industry, using a circular manufacturing approach and running on renewable energy sources.

Kicked off on 1 January 2023, the Threading-CO₂ project addresses the call topic HORIZON-CL4-2022-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-11: Valorisation of CO/ CO₂ streams into added-value products of market interest (Processes4Planet Partnership) and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 101092257.

13 partners from 7 EU countries are involved in the project: Fairbrics, University of Antwerp, Tecnalia, LUT University, CiaoTech, Deutsche Institute fur Textil- und Faserforschung Denkendorf, City of Lappeenranta, Digiotouch, Faurecia, Naldeo, SurePure, Les Tissages de Charlieu, and Aimplas.

The Threading-CO₂ consortium has been selected to bring together the skills and expertise necessary to realize first in class technology capable to use CO₂ as feedstock to produce polyester. The Threading-CO₂ partnership is built to have all required skills (CO₂ supplier, carbon capture, electrolysis, hydrogenation, bio catalyzers), complementary experimental facilities (field platforms able to host various trials with different kinds of protocols and measurement complexity, controlled environment platform able to reach an industrial scale), and collaborative networks to connect with stakeholder groups essential to the project. In Threading-CO₂, leaders in the textile industry were also identified and involved in the project to guarantee product quality at the final stage of the value chain.

Aimplas will focus on the preparation of innovative catalysts for the reactions involved in the synthesis process and its scale-up production process. Moreover, it will collaborate in the set-up of pre-industrial pilot for operations in the continuous, large size reactor of the pilot plant. It will aim for a fully circular manufacturing process by optimising the reuse and recycling of all catalysts, solvents and additives used in the process. Aimplas and FAIR will collaborate on the optimization of the preparation methodology in relation to the use of industrial procedures.