Sustainability and man-made cellulosic fibres

Michael Kininmonth (Lenzing Fibers) June 2008

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Whither cellulosics?

� Man-made cellulosics – what are they?

� Nature’s Cycle

� Staple fibre options

� Life Cycle Study

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(Un)sustainability

� The clothing and textile industry is huge

� Worth over US$1trillion worldwide

� It contributes to 7% of world exports

� It employs approximately 26 million people

� However as an industry the clothing industry is locked into a cycle

of unsustainability

� The relationship between productivity (added value) and resource

use has entered into a chronic and unsustainable pattern

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Identity crisis?

� “Yes I’ve been using TENCEL………it’s a type of nylon’”

� Identity crisis ………less so within the textile trade

� Identity crisis ……….far more so with consumers

� Unlike certain textile fibres

• Cotton – absorbent, comfortable

• Linen – cool

• Wool – warm

• Polyester – easy care

• Cashmere – soft

� MMC fibres do not have a profile within the consumer’s psyche

� So how would I sum up man-made cellulosic fibres?

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Identity crisis?

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Identity crisis?

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Identity crisis?

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Identity crisis?

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Lenzing Fibers

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Production Sites

Purwakarta / Indonesia150,000 tonnes Viscose

Lenzing / Austria170,000 tonnes Viscose

60,000 tonnes Modal

Grimsby / UK40,000 tonnes TENCEL

Mobile / USA40,000 tonnes TENCEL

Nanjing / China 60,000 tonnes Viscose

Heiligenkreuz / Austria40,000 tonnes TENCEL

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Lenzing Fibers

� Lenzing‘s core business is in cellulose staple fibres with a total capacity of 560,000 tonnes per year

� Lenzing is the largest supplier of cellulose staple fibre to the global textiles market

� The manufacturing technology of Lenzing has been developed over many years to offer fibre with excellent quality using sustainable production processes

� Lenzing is the leader in the lyocell process with established production of TENCEL® at three sites

� Lenzing continues to invest in new capacity around the world

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TENCEL®

Comfort

Drape

Performance

Environment

Softness

Silk, Modal, Cupro ,Microfibres , Cotton Natural fibres

Cellulosics

CuproModal

ViscoseSilk

Synthetics

Recycled PEOrganic cotton

Hemp

TENCEL® Footprint

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TENCEL®

Comfort

Drape

Performance

Environment

Softness

Silk, Modal, Cupro ,Microfibres , Cotton Natural fibres

Cellulosics

CuproModal

ViscoseSilk

Synthetics

Recycled PEOrganic cotton

Hemp

TENCEL® Footprint

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Why cellulose?

� Most important natural building block

� Available in abundance

� Cellulose is generated by photosynthesis� consumes CO2

� Biodegradable

� Renewable

� Sustainable

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Nature’s cycle

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What are the options? Oil-based

� Polyester, Polyamide, Polypropylene

� Oil is running out, even if the experts cannot agree when!

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What are the options? Oil-based

� Polyester, Polyamide, Polypropylene

� Oil price reflects that it is becoming a scarce resource

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What are the options? Plant crops

� Cotton, PLA (poly lactic acid)

� These fibres depend on arable land

• either directly (cotton)

• or indirectly (corn for PLA)

� Competition for arable land is increasing for food and bio-fuels

“The root causes of the phenomenon of rising food p rice, high energy and fertilizer prices, the demand for food c rops in

bio-fuel production, and low food stocks - are likely to prevail in the medium term.”

The World Bank February 2008

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What are the options? Plant crops

� Corn prices continue to increase and jumped to $6.50 in April � up by 200% in 18 months

Source USDA from Cattlenetwork.com

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What are the options? Cellulosics

� Lenzing fibres use cellulose from trees

as their raw material

� Trees grow on marginal land unsuitable

for food crops

� Lenzing only uses raw material from

sustainable sources which is certified

by an independent certifying body

(PEFC, FSC or SFI)

� 100% natural origin

� Biodegradable

� Renewable

� Sustainable

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Modal technology

� 100% beech wood-based fibre - trees from middle-European forests

� PEFC chain of custody certified

� Integrated pulp and fibre production on Lenzing site

� By products managed� bark and liquors burnt to generate power� wood sugar xylose – used for manufacture of Xylitol� sodium sulphate – used in manufacture of washing powder� acetic acid – medical and food production

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Lyocell technology

� Purest cellulosic fibre available

� Wood pulp + water + solvent - input

� TENCEL® fibre + water + solvent - output• solvent used is non-toxic (99.7% recycled)

� Based on eucalyptus trees (FSC certified forestry and pulp production)

� Closed-loop technology

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Quantifying environmental impact

� Life Cycle Analysis carried out by Utrecht University

� A comparison of the main staple textile fibres

• Polyester – Western Europe

• Polypropylene – Western Europe

• Cotton – US and China (average)

• Poly Lactic Acid fibre (where information is publicly available)

• Lenzing Viscose®

• Lenzing Modal®

• TENCEL®

Life Cycle Assessment of Man-made cellulose fibres:Modal and Tencel

Li Shen and Dr. Martin PatelDepartment of Science, Technology and Society (STS)Copernicus InstituteUtrecht University

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LCA of fibres

� Fibres are raw materials for textile and nonwoven products

� There are huge differences in usage patterns and lifetime

� Fibre blends are very common

� A comparative cradle-to-grave assessment of different fibre

materials on the basis of the same final product is difficult and often

not realistic (PP shirt?)

� To compare the LCA aspects of different fibre materials it is useful,

to take a “cradle-to-factory-gate” approach and then include “final-

post-consumer-disposal”

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Life cycle of man-made cellulosics

Photo-synthesis

ForestryDisposal

Pulpproduction

Fibreproduction

Use

CO2H2O

GlobalTextile Industry

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LCA Study Basis

� Cradle-to-factory-gate plus heat from disposal by municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI)

� 60% efficiency taken for MSWI energy recovery

� Emissions from MSWI use an economic allocation basis of 17.5% for energy generation and 82.5% for waste disposal

� Functional unit is one metric tonne of staple fibre

� Results use data from the Utrecht University study for Lenzing Viscose®, Lenzing Modal® and TENCEL® (plus their analysis of other published data for cotton, polyester, polypropylene and PLA)

� Lenzing data reference is 2007 actual

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“Cradle-to-factory-gate” boundaries

Photo-synthesis

ForestryDisposal

Pulpproduction

Fibreproduction

Use

CO2H2O

GlobalTextile Industry

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Boundaries – energy recovery

Photo-synthesis

ForestryDisposal

Pulpproduction

Fibreproduction

Use

CO2H2O

GlobalTextile Industry

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What are the environmental impacts?

� Energy

� Global Warming

� Land use

� Water use

� CML environmental indicators

– abiotic depletion

– human toxicity

– fresh water eco-toxicity

– terrestrial eco-toxicity

– photochemical oxidation

– acidification

– eutrophication

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PET (W.Europe)

PP (W.Europe)

Cotton (U

S&CN)

Tencel, Austria

Lenzing M

odal

Tencel, Austria

, 2012

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

78

56

34

26

1613

Net Non-Renewable Energy Use NREU (GJ/t fibre)

Cotton

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PET (W.Europe)

PP (W.Europe)

Cotton (U

S&CN)

Tencel, A

ustria

Tencel, A

ustria, 2

012

Lenzing M

odal-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

-0.3

3.1

5.5

4.2

2.1

1.1 0.9

Net Global warming Potential GWP (t CO 2eq./t fibre)GHG emissions - tonnes CO2 /tonne

Cotton

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Land Usage (Utrecht LCA)

� Cotton US : 0,88 ha/t

� Cotton China : 0,77 ha/t

� Cotton average US &China : 0,82 ha/t

� Cotton World average : 1,06 ha/t

� Lenzing Modal : 0,58 ha/t

� TENCEL® (Austria) : 0,21 ha/t

� Cotton needs about 4-5 times more land per tonne of fibre than

eucalyptus-based TENCEL®

� Further to this trees are grown on what is known as marginal land

whereas cotton is grown on agricultural land

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Water usage

Cotton

artificial irrigation

4,300 - 6,860 m3/t*

Modal

process / cooling***

494 m3/t**

TENCEL

process / cooling ***

266 m3/t**

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Water Consumption (Utrecht LCA)

� Cotton US : 4300 m³/t fibre, China : 6860 m³/t fibre

� Cotton average US & China : 5730 m³/t

� There is no artificial irrigation for trees

� Pulp and fibre production requires water for processing and cooling

� The comparative water consumption figures for our fibers are :

� Lenzing Modal : 494 m³/t, TENCEL® (Austria) : 266 m³/t

� This represents about 10 - 20 times less water than cotton

� Previously cotton data was taken from a publication which reported

up to 29,000 m³/t consumed for cotton in Sudan

� This is roughly 100 times more than for TENCEL®

� The recent lower figures for cotton irrigation result from improved

irrigation practices, higher yields (GMO) and the allocation of ~15%

of the water consumption to the by-product cotton seed

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What are the CML factors?

� Abiotic depletion

� use of non-renewable resources, such as oil, natural gas, coal, etc.

� Human toxicity

� Fresh water eco-toxicity

� Terrestrial eco-toxicity

� Photochemical oxidation

� ozone generation

� Acidification

� acid rain

� Eutrophication

� effects from fertilisers, algae bloom and de-oxygenation

� [CML stands for “Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen, Leiden University / Netherlands)]

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Summary

� Oil based fibres require more non-renewable energy and generate more greenhouse gases than the other fibres

� Cotton and PLA both need arable land for their production

� PLA cannot be readily compared with the other fibres because of the absence of published information on the CML indicators

� Cotton stands out because of the very significant land and wateruse and a significantly higher impact in terms of both aquatic and terrestrial toxicity

� Overall, Lenzing Fibers have extremely favourable single score results

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Benefits of products from wood

� Storage• of the forest’s carbon right through the life of the products and

beyond, through recycling

� Substitution

• for other products which produce higher CO2 emissions

� Recovery• of the energy stored in the wood at the end of the products’ life

by combustion as a substitute for fossil fuels

� Renewal• of the forests, as timber use stimulates the expansion of

forests, increasing the carbon sink effect and sequestering more CO2 from the atmosphere

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Conclusions

� Lenzing man-made cellulosic fibers offer a sustainable solution for the needs of the Textile Industry

� With pressure on oil reserves, water supplies and arable land, cellulose based man made fibres offer an excellent option to help conserve the planet’s resources

� Alternative staple fibers are dependent on polymers from oil, orrequire arable land for their feedstock

� Extensive experience and best practice in manufacturing mean that Lenzing can offer a sustainable option

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Lenzing Fibers

in harmony with nature