Spiber Inc. announced and welcomed new partnerships with DyStar, Kering’s Material Innovation Lab (MIL), Eileen Fisher Inc. and Johnstons of Elgin at the Biofabricate materials conference in Paris on Jan. 12-14. The companies joined Spiber’s Biosphere Circulation project, which presents a pioneering methodology for regenerating biobased and biodegradable textile and agricultural waste through the utilization of its proprietary fermentation technology.
Biosphere Circulation project
Spiber’s biosphere circulation project aims to enable a materials circulation ecosystem in which biobased waste, such as agricultural residues or natural fiber components of discarded textiles, can be broken down into “nutrients” (sugars and amino acids) and used as feedstock to produce materials via fermentation, including Spiber’s proprietary Brewed Protein materials – lab-grown, plant-derived, and circular materials made through a proprietary microbial fermentation process. The project envisions a more sustainable future marked by a circular ecosystem of industrial biomaterials that can be broken down into biological nutrients, in which mainstream products are designed, made, used, discarded, collected, and regenerated to be kept in circulation as resources after their end-of-use.
Kering, Eileen Fisher Inc., Johnstons of Elgin, and DyStar have now elected to join the project, following Goldwin and Pangaia, who began participating in June 2023. These collaborations aim to catalyze the transition from a linear “take-make-use-dispose” model to a circular “take-make-use-reuse” model.
Why work with Spiber on the project?
The brands’ participation in the project will support Spiber by, among other things, providing samples for laboratory testing. The samples provided may require custom manufacturing by the brands’ supply chain partners, as the textile samples must be made of specific fibers processed with key textile chemicals. Testing these and other materials at lab scale will allow Spiber to gather valuable data to analyze and determine how different types of textile chemicals, such as finishing and dyeing agents, affect the conversion of cellulose and protein-based materials into nutrients that can be used in the fermentation process, such as sugars and amino acids.
Spiber intends to compile the results of these tests into a database that will provide information on the efficiency of different materials in combination with textile chemicals in converting into nutrients for fermentation. This database will serve as a resource for the industry to refer to when developing products for the circular economy and products that will be compatible with circular solutions, such as Spiber’s biosphere recirculation system in the future.
Spiber explicitly points out that all industry stakeholders are invited to join the project to implement the technologies, infrastructure, and policies needed to realize this vision for a circular ecosystem of industrial materials that are bio-based, biodegradable, and used as nutrients at the end of their use.
First steps
In 2023, Spiber’s Biosphere Circulation project published product design principles to provide the industry with a framework for developing products that are compatible with circular solutions. In addition, Spiber and the Biosphere Circulation Project participants have begun testing and analyzing combinations of fibers and key textile chemicals to determine how different types of chemicals affect the conversion of cellulose- and protein-based fibers into nutrients for fermentation.
