Last August, React partner CETI succeeded in producing, on its semi-industrial mechanical recycling line, an acrylic yarn made of up to 100% fibres from recycled awning fabrics. This innovation project required CETI’s R&D team, composed of textile engineers and experienced technicians, to reinvent and synchronise the three key stages of recycling: fraying of these fabric scraps, carding and spinning. The quality control of this yarn obtained during the tests revealed very promising results on its performance (tenacity and fineness). 

The objective today is to continue to develop and improve the parameterisation of the entire process to optimise the quality of the fabric made from these recycled acrylic fibres. Thanks to the technical skills of its engineers and their experience in the industry, CETI will accelerate the transition from product development on pilot lines to industrialisation.

A mechanical recycling pilot line unique in Europe

Operational since September 2019 at the CETI, this demonstrator for mechanical recycling of textile recovery allows to lift the technological locks that are encountered today in the sector and to guarantee the performance of an industrial recycling line. This process, which is now mature, can work on all mixed or 100% materials.

A real breakthrough innovation for the industry

It is essential to implement a technological transition in order to have a production method that meets the requirements of sustainable development. There is a real challenge for a sustainable and economically interesting valorisation of these new deposits of materials. CETI’s ambition is to build a recycling industry of excellence, by federating all the players in the value chain in a new approach of reindustrialisation and by exploiting new sustainable supply resources.

Within the REACT project, CETI is in charge of optimising the mechanical recycling process. CETI’s teams are working on improving the length of the fibre during the fraying process; thanks to their spinning line, they have also initiated tests to increase the proportion of recycled fibres in the yarn.