TexTerials

Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems

TexTerials focuses on feasible open-loop recycling strategies for producing high quality special fibers for application in the construction sector, thus generating impact at scale. Our team investigates fiber downsizing from the macro to the microscale levels, via shredding and refining, aiming at producing a new class of tailor-made fibers, with controlled hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance and sizes. By controlling surface chemistry and dimensions in the refined textile waste fibers, we will improve their networking, strength, reactivity, and surface compatibility with several other components that are relevant in materials for the built environment.

TexTerials is a Co-Research project funded by Business Finland, via a partnership model funding call for leading companies, under Valmet's Beyond Circularity program.

Work packages

In this WP we aim to understand chemical variability of unsorted textile waste, develop and optimize textile shredding into fibers that can be further refined via aqueoues processes, create an analytical framework to assess dust identity and formation and finally to correlate process-property of shredded fibers.

This WP covers the development of refining processes to efficiently downsize textile fibers into nano-microscale, while understanding microplastic and fines formation and propose strategies to minimize and retain them. We study chemical and enzymatic routes to enable easier, and more controllable, fiber refining. We go further and we aim to understand water interactions and flow behavior of newly developed refined microfibers. Finally we correlate process-property-performance for refined textile fibers.

In this WP we test the portifolio of refined fibers in several applications in concrete, composites (including mycelium-based materials) and foams. We are developing computational setup for textile-based materials design within Processing-Structure-Properties-Performance (PSPP) framework. Then we will correlate fiber properties with performance in applications, while providing new fiber-based solutions leading to improved mechanical, thermal and acoustical properties and enabling higher fire-retardancy in construction materials.

In this WP we explore TEA and LCA tools to tackle bottlenecks in the process of refining textile fibers and during the manufacturing of fiber-reinforced materials.

Key expected outcomes

Understanding of dust formation during shredding and proposed processes or technologies/formulation to minimize (and valorize) it.
New mechanical refining processes to create tailor-made high-performance fibers.
New class of microfibrillated fibers with controlled amphiphilicity.
New formulations for building materials.