Cellulose fiber fermented by the world's first microbe

The Australian-based Nanollose Company developed the world's first cellulosic fiber garment produced using a non-traditional process, in which the cellulose fibers used are microbially converted from biomass waste.

Viscose fiber is widely used, and can be made of cellulose fiber such as wood fiber (birch, eucalyptus, pine, etc.), cotton fiber (cotton linters), grass fabric fiber (bamboo, reed, corn stalk, etc.), but In actual production, wood pulp with high output and wide source is mainly used as raw material. Since deforestation may affect the ecological environment, many factories have established their own forest farms and passed FSC certification to make their material sources more sustainable.

In the production of viscose, a large amount of chemical raw materials, such as caustic soda, carbon disulfide, sulfuric acid, etc., are required, and the recovery effect of these chemical raw materials is poor, which causes great pollution to the environment.

The non-wood-derived cellulose fiber Nullabor developed by Nanollose is a good solution to the two pain points of viscose fiber production. Nullabor is a microbial-derived by-product that converts biomass waste, such as coconut waste, into cellulose (chemically similar to cotton) by fermentation, and Nanollose uses its own technology to convert these cellulose into viscose. Fiber, and this technology has good compatibility with existing industrial processing equipment. The entire process takes only 18 days and there is little need for land, water and energy.

Nanollose has successfully made a sweater from the microbial cellulose fiber they developed, which also marks the breakthrough in the application of Nullabor fiber in textile and apparel.

“We don't need to cut down any trees to produce cellulose fiber, and it has been proven that microbial cellulose fibers can be used to make textiles like other common fibers. The entire production process consumes very little energy and carbon emissions are low.” Allfie Germano, managing director of Nanollose, said.

In order to ensure that Nanollose is able to provide quality partners with stable quality commercial fibers for future partners, the company is developing an ecological supply chain that produces materials mainly from waste from the Indonesian coconut industry (including waste from other industries) and hopes Can significantly increase the production of fiber in the near future.