Breathing new life into aramid fibres
Teijin Aramid will highlight its new circularity collaboration with Purfi at the International A+A Congress from October 26-29 in Düsseldorf, Germany, in addition to showcasing its high-performance aramid solutions for protective materials, such as Teijinconex.
Purfi – a joint venture of Concordia Textiles and Purfi Global based in Waragem, Belgium – has developed a fibre rejuvenation technology which focuses on the strategic categorisation and classification of textile fabric waste, and the subsequent processing of these materials using patented and trade secret protected machinery and process techniques. The company distinguishes itself from traditional recycling which in most cases typically uses aggressive mechanical tearing, resulting in mostly downcycled end-products, or caustic chemicals and high resource costs, which produce an expensive end-product.
Purfi says it rejuvenation technology transforms post-industrial textile waste into truly sustainable circular fibres while maintaining an extremely low carbon footprint. It can also track raw materials from their origin at the manufacturer to the final product at the Purfi rejuvenation facility. Its collaboration with Teijin Aramid is based on a technology that regenerates pre and post-consumer aramid-based materials used in protective textiles to fibre level to an extremely high standard. The aim is for the rejuvenated fibres to be reused by Teijin Aramid and its value chain partners in the production of aramid-based protective textiles.
A further aim is to achieve circularity in the aramid chain for Teijinconex-based products while minimising waste and the use of virgin materials.
In short, the partnership is underpinned by three core ambitions:
- Reducing carbon emissions.
- Setting new standards for recycling all aramid fibres.
- Building transparent material streams for aramid textiles.
The goal of Teijin Aramid, headquartered in Arnhem, the Netherlands, is a fully circular aramid value chain with zero emissions. The company has been developing recycling technologies to solve waste problems across multiple industries and for over 20 years has been mechanically recycling end-of-life products into pulp, from which useful products such as brake pads can be made.
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