2023-07-03 06:40:54
While the injunctions to limit CO2 emissions are becoming more and more significant, some companies are inventing new methods to recycle this cumbersome material. Focus on Fairbrics, a young Parisian start-up that uses carbon dioxide to produce polyester fibers.
Occupying 60% of the textile market, polyester, also called polyethylene terephthalate (PET), requires 100 million tonnes of fossil materials each year for its manufacture. In 2019, Tawfiq Nasr Allah and Benoît Illy, both doctors in chemistry, founded the start-up Fairbrics in order to reduce the carbon footprint of this plastic while reusing the CO2 from polluting industries. The company, located on the Saclay plateau in Villebon-sur-Yvette (Essonne), transforms industrial CO2 into polyester fiber.
Since its creation, Fairbrics has been a major success. In 2020, she launched her first fundraiser and collected one million euros thanks to business angels. She then moved to the start-up accelerator of the chemist Air Liquide, on the Saclay plateau. After developing a proof of concept and manufacturing its first T-shirt, the brands H&M, On-Running and Aigle sign purchase agreements for this polyester.
This is followed by another fundraiser which raises an additional five million euros in January 2022. A year later, once more. Fairbrics completes a funding round to subsidize its scale-up and industrialize its process. 22 million euros were thus collected, including 7 million euros from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and 5 million euros from the start-up’s partners. Fairbrics will launch a new fundraiser by the end of the year to consolidate its finances and secure its ongoing projects.
Use industrial waste
Some industries such as steel and petrochemicals release large quantities of CO2. Fairbrics therefore aims to establish partnerships with these companies to rid them of their carbon dioxide. A win-win association: Fairbrics buys its raw material at low cost, while the manufacturer considerably reduces its emissions. The collected CO2 is then transformed using an analytical chemistry process. It undergoes a step of oxidative carbonylation and hydrogenation of the oxalate formed. The product obtained is ethylene glycol which, combined with terephthalic acid, will make it possible to manufacture PET, these famous polyester fibers. For now, the terephthalic acid used by Fairbrics does not come from CO2, but the young company is working on it. This complex process is the subject of five patents. By analyzing the life cycle of its molecules, the start-up claims that its polyester reduces the fiber’s carbon footprint by 70%.
With a proven process, the start-up aims to install a pilot demonstrator in Antwerp, Belgium, by mid-2024. The CO2 will be recovered directly on the port’s chemical platform. This pilot will be able to generate 100 kg per day of polyester. In the longer term, Fairbrics wants to set up its first pilot plant, capable of producing one tonne per day of polyester, by 2026.
Once these two steps have been completed, Fairbrics wishes to license technology for manufacturers, limiting itself to the production of polyester balls, in order to limit investments in equipment. These beads might be used not only in the clothing sector, but also for plastic packaging or the design of car seats.
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