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Berne: Producing a
single pair of jeans requires more than 2,500 gallons of water,
nearly a pound of chemicals and vast amounts of energy, it is
estimated.
Multiply that by two billion, the number of jeans produced
worldwide every year and you get a snapshot of an industry that
contributes a hefty share of wastewater and greenhouse gases to
the environment.
But an emerging greener chemistry process could help change all of
that.
Called Advanced Denim, the process can produce a pair of jeans
using up to 92 percent less water and up to 30 percent less energy
than conventional denim manufacturing methods, according to Miguel
Sanchez, textile engineer at Clariant, a specialty chemical
company based in Muttenz (near Basel), Switzerland, that developed
Advanced Denim.
Besides, it generates up to 87 percent less cotton waste (often
burned, adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the
atmosphere) and virtually no wastewater, according to an American
Chemical Society (ACS) statement.
Unlike conventional denim production methods, which require up to
15 dyeing vats and an array of potentially harmful chemicals,
Advanced Denim uses just one vat and a new generation of
eco-advanced, concentrated, liquid sulphur dyes that require only
a single, sugar-based reducing agent. All other production steps
are eliminated, according to Sanchez.
If just 25 percent of the world's denim jeans were dyed with this
technology, Sanchez said, it would save enough water to cover the
needs of 1.7 million people every year.
That's equivalent to about 2.5 billion gallons of water every
year. It also would forestall the release of 8.3 million cubic
metres of wastewater, save up to 220 million kilowatt hours of
electricity and eliminate the release of a corresponding amount of
carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere annually.
"Advanced Denim wants to go beyond the technologies that are today
considered standard for obtaining denim material," Sanchez said
adding that Clariant is working with many of the world's leading
jeans manufacturers and that there is high interest in adopting
Advanced Denim technologies.
These findings were presented at the 16th annual Green Chemistry &
Engineering Conference, sponsored by the ACS.
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