In fleece fabric, crude oil can be replaced with wood biomass

Uusi puu – The New Wood Project shows what wood can do. The project promotes wood-based innovations and provides information about them.

UPM collaborated with outerwear manufacturer Vaude to develop a fleece fabric in which crude oil is replaced with wood biomass.

In the New Wood Public Vote you have an opportunity to learn more about wood-based solutions. Explore the competition candidates and vote for your favorite by the end of September 2024.

The fashion and footwear industries urgently need to find more raw materials that conform to the principles of sustainable development. About 60 percent of all materials used in the fashion industry are made of fossil-based polymers.

In particular, synthetic polymers are needed in high-performance materials, such as those used in sports- and outerwear.

At the end of the year 2023, UPM Biochemicals and the outerwear manufacturer Vaude launched the world’s first partially bio-based fleece jacket.

The resin used to produce the polyester for fleece fabrics normally contains 30 percent monoethylene glycol (MEG), conventionally made out of crude oil. UPM and Vaude use a process in which this ingredient is completely replaced by bio monoethylene glycol (BioMEG). The material is marketed under the brand name UPM BioPura™. According to UPM, it can be easily used in existing polyester production processes. On the molecular level, it is equivalent to MEG, and can also be recycled in the same way.

UPM and Vaude hope that their fleece jacket will inspire and motivate fashion brands to move from fossil-based materials to bio-based solutions, as this would make an incentive for the textile industry to  improve its sustainability.

’We have partnered with UPM as partnerships across the whole value chain are a prerequisite for enhancing sustainable innovations. This initial milestone marks the first step in our journey to create a polyester derived from non-fossil ingredients,’ says  René Bethmann, Senior Innovation Manager at Vaude.

How did you like the article?

Share:

Write a comment

Privacy Overview
Forest News logo

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. You can change the cookie settings below.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

User count and analytics

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.