A UBC team has developed a cleaner, more sustainable way to produce rayon—a fabric that’s been popular for over a century but has long relied on harsh chemical processes.
A UBC team has developed a cleaner, more sustainable way to produce rayon—a fabric that’s been popular for over a century but has long relied on harsh chemical processes.
Traditional rayon production uses toxic solvents to dissolve wood pulp before spinning it into threads, a process that’s also highly energy-intensive. The new method, developed by UBC faculty of forestry associate professor Dr. Feng Jiang and doctoral student Huayu Liu, uses microfibrillated cellulose (MFC)—hairlike strands made by mechanically grinding down wood pulp. Instead of dissolving all the pulp, the researchers dissolve only a small amount to act as a natural glue, helping the MFC strands stick together and spin smoothly into continuous threads.
By dissolving only part of the cellulose, the process cuts solvent use by up to 70 per cent, eliminates several chemical-heavy pulp-purifying steps, and reuses all solvents in a closed-loop system, making it much gentler on the environment.
Read More at: University of British Columbia
Sustainable rayon can be spun from mechanically treated wood pulp using far fewer chemicals. (Photo Credit: Lou Bosshart)
