Towards Sustainable Viscose-to-Viscose Production: Strategies for Recycling of Viscose Fibres

Diana Carolina Reyes Forsberg, Jenny Bengtsson (), Nadine Hollinger and Tahani Kaldéus
Additional contact information
Diana Carolina Reyes Forsberg: MoRe Research AB (RISE), Box 70, 891 22 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
Jenny Bengtsson: Fiber Development, Department of Polymer, Fiber and Composites, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Argongatan 30, 431 53 Mölndal, Sweden
Nadine Hollinger: MoRe Research AB (RISE), Box 70, 891 22 Örnsköldsvik, Sweden
Tahani Kaldéus: The Loop Factory AB, Industrivägen 6B, 432 40 Varberg, Sweden

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: The potential for using discarded viscose textiles to produce high-quality viscose fibres is limited by the low molecular weight of the cellulose and its continued reduction in the recycling process. Herein, we present a straightforward approach of reprocessing discarded viscose textiles while achieving high-quality recycled viscose fibres. Discarded viscose textile was defibrated and centrifuged, and the resulting fibres were reprocessed under industrially relevant conditions. The produced viscose dope was fluid and resulted in viscose fibres with properties comparable to fibres made from commercial wood cellulose pulp (titer ~2 dtex; dry elongation ~16%, dry tenacity ~15 cN/tex). To explore the potential for a more environmentally friendly production process, the steeping step was performed twice (double-steeping), thereby producing a more homogeneous viscose dope. Through double-steeping, the consumption of carbon disulfide (CS 2 ) could be reduced by 30.5%. The double-steeping method shows to be a suitable approach to reprocess discarded viscose textiles while reducing the environmental impact of the viscose process associated with the use of CS 2 . Our work demonstrates that discarded viscose textile has the potential to be part of a circular textile value chain.

Keywords: textile recycling; man-made cellulose fibres (MMCF); viscose process; carbon disulfide (CS 2 ); regenerated fibres; cellulose; filter clogging value; chemically efficient process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/10/4127/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/10/4127/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:10:p:4127-:d:1394718

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().