FiberColors revolution 31-01-2023

FiberColors revolution

-Archroma starts the FiberColors* revolution

With the Earth population reaching 8 billion in November 2022, the need to address the issue of textile waste becomes more critical.

According to earth.org, 92 million tons of textile waste is produced every year, a number that is expected to soar to 134 million tons by the end of the decade.

Around 85% of all textiles discarded in the US are said to end up in landfills, leading to land and water pollution impacting first and foremost local communities.

Archroma, a company who creates colors for fashion, decided to look at the issue creatively: what if it could create colors from waste fashion?

Archroma had already developed a way to turn waste from the herbal and food industry into its range of EarthColors® featured by brands such as G-Star, Patagonia, Esprit, Tom Taylor, Pangaia, UGG, and Primark. FiberColors revolution

Archroma is now introducing another ground-breaking innovation: the FiberColors* technology.

With this technology, Archroma upcycles textile waste into gorgeous colors. The colors are synthesized from a minimum content of 50% waste-based raw material.

Archroma’s R&D experts have developed a way to use cotton and/or polyamide and their blends (with a >95% purity) to substitute the major part of the petroleum-based raw material usually used to make dyestuff. FiberColors revolution

The resulting FiberColors* range, which is patent-pending and therefore exclusive to Archroma, includes five dyes covering a palette of timeless shades: Diresul® Fiber-Teak (brown shades), Diresul® Fiber-Ochre (olive shades), Diresul® Fiber-Maroon (bordeaux shades), Diresul® Fiber-Slate (blue grey shades) and Diresul® Fiber-Graphite (dark grey shades).

The dyes are especially suited for cellulose fibers such as cotton, viscose, linen and kapok, and can be used in continuous, exhaust, denim and garment dyeing and printing processes. FiberColors revolution

With this, a brand can turn its own pre- and post-consumer textile waste into its own beautiful colors, and create a complete collection including t-shirts, chinos, sweatshirts, hoodies, polo shirts, and home textiles.

FiberColors* are ideal for forward-thinking companies who want to help find a solution to textile landfills, and at the same time give value to waste including articles collected in their take-back schemes that cannot be reused. FiberColors revolution

Heike van de Kerkhof, Chief Executive Officer of Archroma, comments: “After creating colors from food and herbal waste with EarthColors®, we are taking a step further in circular manufacturing with FiberColors*, addressing the huge textile and fashion waste global issue. This is how we make our purpose to lead our industry towards a more sustainable future for our customers and markets, a reality. Because it’s our nature.”

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/y0o_eECiG3g
More information at: https://www.archroma.com/innovations/fiber-colors-by-archroma
* trademark pending
® Trademark(s) of Archroma registered in many countries.
© 2023 Archroma

FiberColors revolution

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FiberColors revolution

Recycled-Plastics – Lithium-batteries 30-01-2023

Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic 31-01-2023

Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

Crude Oil Prices Trend

Crude Oil Prices Trend

Crude Oil Prices Trend

-Radici in Plastindia with a wider offer

In addition to the compounds already in its catalogue, the Bergamo-based group offers the technopolymers acquired from Ester Industries, which will be produced locally in the new plant.

On the occasion of Plastindia, scheduled in New Delhi from 1 to 5 February, the Radici group takes stock of its activities in India, where it operates through RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers.

The company, which will exhibit at the Indian fair, is completing the construction of a new production plant in Halol, in the province of Gujarat, the result of the acquisition of the engineering plastics activities of Ester Industries, which took place last autumn (see article). Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

Once completed, the factory will be equipped with compounding lines and R&D laboratories, allowing the Bergamo-based group to more closely monitor the Indian market, where it has been present with commercial structures since 2006. The Radici compounds are thus joined by the Estoplast range acquired by Ester Industries, also including flame retardant products, certified UL 94.

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Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

-Why hydrogen cars are not the answer

Imagine an electric car which has a range of 400 miles, can be refuelled almost as fast as a petrol or diesel car yet emits only water. Those are the upsides of a hydrogen fuel cell car (known as a fuel cell electric vehicle, or FCEV). So why aren’t they everywhere?

There is a dedicated core of FCEV supporters who insist that hydrogen-powered EVs are better than battery-powered EVs, and that the world is crazy for ignoring them. Unfortunately, a hydrogen fuel cell offers few advantages over a battery, with several deal-breaking disadvantages. Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

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Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

-China’s battery maker CATL plans $3.5 billion new project

Chinese battery giant CATL plans to build a new project to recover waste batteries and make lithium materials, with investment of up to 23.8 billion yuan ($3.5 billion), the company said on Sunday. Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

Guangdong Bangpu Recycling Technology Co Ltd – a unit of CATL – will invest and build the facilities in Foshan city in Guangdong province, CATL said in a statement.

The project will have a capacity of recovering 500,000 tonnes of waste battery materials and make lithium iron materials and other materials, the company said.

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Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

-Archroma starts the FiberColors* revolution

Pratteln, Switzerland, 26 January 2023 – With the Earth population reaching 8 billion in November 2022, the need to address the issue of textile waste becomes more critical.

According to earth.org, 92 million tons of textile waste is produced every year, a number that is expected to soar to 134 million tons by the end of the decade. Around 85% of all textiles discarded in the US are said to end up in landfills, leading to land and water pollution impacting first and foremost local communities.

More.. 

Archroma starts the FiberColors* revolution

-EU trade with Russia declined strongly

EU trade with Russia has been strongly affected following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the EU imposing import and export restrictions on several products. The effects of these measures have been particularly visible in the latest months.

Considering seasonally adjusted values, both exports and imports dropped considerably below the levels prior to Russia’s invasion. Russia’s share in extra-EU imports fell from 6.4% to 3.8% between February 2022 and September 2022. Over the same period, extra-EU exports to Russia dropped from 2.3% to 1.1%. The EU’s trade deficit with Russia, peaked in March 2022 at €19.6 billion. It then progressively decreased and in September 2022 stood at €9.7 billion.. Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

When looking at Russia’s share in extra-EU imports for six key products, a strong decline is visible for coal, natural gas, petroleum oil, fertilisers, and iron & steel, while for nickel the share increased slightly. In particular, the highest drops have been recorded for coal (from 45% in 2021 to 13% in the third quarter of 2022), natural gas (from 36 % to 18 %), fertilisers (from 29% to 17%) and iron & steel (from 16% to 5%).

EU trade with Russia declined strongly

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EU trade with Russia declined strongly

-Dow is cutting about 2,000 jobs, or 5% of workforce

Materials science company Dow is cutting about 2,000 jobs, or approximately 5% of its global workforce, as part of an effort to reach $1 billion in cost savings this year.

The Midland, Michigan-based company currently employs approximately 37,800 people.

Dow Inc. will take a charge of $550 million to $725 million in the first quarter. This mostly includes severance and related benefit costs; costs related to exit and disposal activities and asset write-downs and write-offs. Dow did not provide specifics but said it would evaluate assets with a focus on Europe. Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

The company also reported a fourth-quarter profit of $613 million, or 85 cents per share. Its adjusted profit was 46 cents per share, below the 57 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were calling for.

Revenue totaled $11.86 billion, missing Wall Street’s estimate of $12.03 billion.

“In the fourth quarter, Team Dow continued to proactively navigate slowing global growth, challenging energy markets, and destocking,” Jim Fitterling, chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “In response, we shifted our focus to cash generation in the quarter as we lowered operating rates, implemented cost-savings measures, and prioritized higher-value products where demand remained resilient.

Shares fell 3% before the market open.

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Dow is cutting about 2,000 jobs, or 5% of workforce

-Easily Recyclable and Compostable – A New Plastic With Excellent Mechanical Stability

Researchers at the University of Konstanz have developed a new plastic that is highly stable, biodegradable, and readily recyclable.

How can plastics be designed so that they maintain their useful properties while also being more easily recyclable? Chemist Stefan Mecking and his research group at the University of Konstanz are focused on studying eco-friendly solutions for plastics. In their recent paper in the international edition of Angewandte Chemie, the team introduces a new polyester that exhibits material properties that are suitable for industrial use and environmentally responsible. Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

Normally hardly compatible

Plastics are made of long chains of one or several chemical basic modules, so-called monomers. Plastics distinguished by high crystallinity and water repellency, therefore mechanically highly resilient and stable, are widely used. A well-known example is high-density polyethylene (HDPE), whose basic modules consist of non-polar hydrocarbon molecules. What may on the one side be advantageous properties for applications can also have adverse effects: It is very energy intensive and inefficient to recycle such plastics and recover the basic modules. Also, if such plastics leak into the environment, the degradation process is extremely long.

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Easily Recyclable and Compostable – A New Plastic With Excellent Mechanical Stability

Recyclable-Compostable-Plastic

Recycled-Plastics – Lithium-batteries 30-01-2023

Hydrogen cars 31-01-2023

Hydrogen cars

-Why hydrogen cars are not the answer

Imagine an electric car which has a range of 400 miles, can be refuelled almost as fast as a petrol or diesel car yet emits only water. Those are the upsides of a hydrogen fuel cell car (known as a fuel cell electric vehicle, or FCEV). So why aren’t they everywhere?

There is a dedicated core of FCEV supporters who insist that hydrogen-powered EVs are better than battery-powered EVs, and that the world is crazy for ignoring them. Unfortunately, a hydrogen fuel cell offers few advantages over a battery, with several deal-breaking disadvantages.

The problems that show no sign of really being overcome include cost, lack of infrastructure and relative inefficiencies in delivering hydrogen to customers.

But let’s start with a bit of background into FCEVs.

What’s a hydrogen car?

A hydrogen fuel cell car is a type of electric vehicle, using a similar electric motor system to drive the car as used by a battery electric vehicle. The key difference is how the electricity is generated and stored.  Hydrogen cars

In a battery electric vehicle – which is any EV you can currently buy on the market – the electricity to power the car comes from an external source (usually the national electricity grid) and is stored in a large battery, most often placed along the floor of the car underneath your feet.

In comparison, a hydrogen fuel cell car is fuelled with hydrogen from a fuelling station, in a similar way to filling a petrol car. The hydrogen is then used to create electricity on the go to power the electric motor.

How a hydrogen fuel cell car works

In simple terms, a fuel cell car consists of several pressurised fuel tanks which supply what is known as a fuel cell stack. The stack is made up of individual cells which each produce less than one volt of electricity, so hundreds of them are connected together to produce the necessary voltage to power the electric motor.

The fuel cell generates electricity by forcing hydrogen to react with oxygen. The only output is water.

Hydrogen is used because it’s a great energy carrier, meaning a small amount can release a lot of energy to drive the vehicle. That also means hydrogen is highly explosive if it leaks, which is why you inevitably read and see references to the 1937 Hindenberg airship explosion anytime anyone mentions hydrogen-powered cars.

However, that was 86 years ago and a lot has changed about how hydrogen is used and stored. Hydrogen cars

Modern hydrogen fuel tanks are just as safe, if not safer, than petrol tanks (another highly explosive product we are quite happy living with on a daily basis). They typically have a carbon fibre shell surrounded by a glass fibre layer. They can withstand double their normal operating pressures and are surrounded by sensors.

Tiny choice, high price

Car makers who have already built production hydrogen fuel cell cars have tended to be those who want to showcase their technical expertise rather than make a profit from them.

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Why hydrogen cars are not the answer

Hydrogen cars

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Recycled-Plastics – Lithium-batteries 30-01-2023

Radici in Plastindia 31-01-2023

Radici in Plastindia

-Radici in Plastindia with a wider offer

In addition to the compounds already in its catalogue, the Bergamo-based group offers the technopolymers acquired from Ester Industries, which will be produced locally in the new plant.

On the occasion of Plastindia, scheduled in New Delhi from 1 to 5 February, the Radici group takes stock of its activities in India, where it operates through RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers.

The company, which will exhibit at the Indian fair, is completing the construction of a new production plant in Halol, in the province of Gujarat, the result of the acquisition of the engineering plastics activities of Ester Industries, which took place last autumn (see article).  Radici in Plastindia

Once completed, the factory will be equipped with compounding lines and R&D laboratories, allowing the Bergamo-based group to more closely monitor the Indian market, where it has been present with commercial structures since 2006. The Radici compounds are thus joined by the Estoplast range acquired by Ester Industries, also including flame retardant products, certified UL 94. Radici in Plastindia

“At the fair we will show some applications with Radilon and Radiflam, also in special versions, for the automotive and e-mobility sectors – anticipates Federico Percassi, new Country Manager India of RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers -. These are strategic sectors also for the market India, looking for products that meet the most stringent requirements in terms of performance and safety”.

Radici High Performance Polymers will present at Plastindia compounds specifically formulated for the electrical/electronic and telecommunications industries, as well as for water management, also for metal substitution, such as special Radilon, Radistrong and Radistrong Aroma grades. 

“With a proprietary production site in India – underlines Cesare Clausi, Global Sales Manager of RadiciGroup High Performance Polymers – we add an important element to the Group’s internationalization strategy and, together with the site in China, we increase our production capacity in Asia and our level of efficiency, to be a strategic partner of our customers in the development of increasingly cutting-edge solutions”.

Radici in Plastindia

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Radici in Plastindia

Recycled-Plastics – Lithium-batteries 30-01-2023