- The world's first fleece made partly using captured carbon pollution
- Industrial waste emissions are fermented into ethanol, then spun into polyester
- Made with carbon-recycling firm LanzaTech (Bio3 Carbon Smart Polyester)
- 100% recycled: ~30% from captured carbon, ~70% from recycled bottles
- Lowers the fabric's carbon footprint vs virgin polyester
How does it work?
The process reshapes carbon waste by using carbon emissions as the starting point to create some of Craghoppers recycled polyester blends. CO2Renu technology is an innovative way of recycling carbon emissions from industry, that would otherwise be emitted as CO₂, whilst helping reduce the carbon footprint of the fabric.
In simple terms CO2Renu is a 3-part process:
1. Intercepting carbon emissions 2. Fermenting carbon into liquid ethanol 3. Polymerizing it into fabric
The Science
Carbon is a chemical element that occurs in nature both in pure form (e.g. graphite or diamonds) or as a part of chemical compounds - such as CO and CO₂.
What is special about this element is that carbon has the ability to form complex molecules, and therefore shows the greatest variety of chemical compounds of all elements - that is, carbon can take on a variety of forms in combination with other elements.
Industrial activity generates waste gases that usually end up as CO₂ emissions; for instance, CO and CO₂ waste gases are produced during steel manufacturing.
We worked with climate tech company, LanzaTech who has a platform to capture and convert these waste emissions into the building blocks for textiles manufacturing via the process of fermentation. Much like traditional fermentation that uses sugars and yeast to make alcohol, this process uses waste carbon emissions and a special microbe to make ethanol. This ethanol can be converted into mono ethylene glycol (MEG), a key ingredient in the manufacture of polyester.
In this way ethanol from pollution can be converted into the material needed to make the fleece. We refer to these yarns as Bio3 Carbon Smart Polyester. When blended with recycled polyester in the next step, then named CO2Renu.
CO2Renu fabric is 100% recycled — roughly 30% derived from captured carbon emissions and 70% from recycled plastic bottles — produced with carbon-recycling partner LanzaTech as Bio3 Carbon Smart Polyester. It was an ISPO 2022 award winner.