Lenzing to support EU-funded project aiming to reform textile industry

Regenerated cellulose fibre producer Lenzing Group has joined non-profit RTDS Group and 13 other industry partners to promote the scaling of lyocell filaments as part of the Cellfil project, an initiative co-founded by the EU with the goal of driving the reformation of the textile industry towards a circular economy.

Lenzing will take the technical helm of Cellfil, initially launched by Austrian RTDS with the mission of developing and utilising alternative raw material sources for textiles and replacing synthetic fibres with lyocell filaments in recyclable end applications.

The project is part of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe which has made 6.9 million euros of funding available for its implementation.

In a release, Markus Pichler, head of Lyocell Filament Development at the Lenzing Group, said: “We are still in the industrial start-up phase for lyocell filaments. Many aspects, such as the availability of lyocell filaments in the supply chain and technological adjustments for the processing of cellulose yarns, need to be addressed in order to change the capacities of the textile industry, which is currently more suited to polyester filaments.”