FLEXIBLE FUND

Coloration in Flow

Lead institution

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Project Duration

The textile coloration industry is trying to reduce its impact on the environment.

Spin or dope dyeing has been identified as a more sustainable option to produce coloured fibres through either melt or wet-spinning, but the process has its limitations so is only applied to colours with a large market demand, such as black. However, there is potential to dye fibres during wet spinning as part of the treatment baths of the still-forming fibre, which could reduce the energy and materials required to dye the fibres and be more flexible than dope dyeing.

Microfibre shedding is an area of extreme concern, but research is on generation within consumer laundering. An under-explored area is the production of microfibres during dyeing; one recent study suggests wet-processing releases 25x more microfibres than laundering. This project will explore microfibre generation during traditional dyeing methodologies and compare to microfibre generation during the in-situ dyeing during wet spinning.