Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant VZW
Rodenhuizekaai 1
9042 Desteldonk Gent
Belgium
Circular solutions for the textile industry (Glaukos)
Contact
Glaukos will develop innovative textile fibres and textile coatings that reconcile an excellent environmental performance with adequate technical characteristics. The focus lies on two important contributors to the (micro)plastic pollution in our oceans: fishing gear and clothing.
The complete life cycle of these textiles will be redesigned: their sustainability performance (i.e. biodegradability and bio-recyclability) will be enhanced significantly, while their technical performance will be matched to end-user requirements. Glaukos builds upon
i) triggerable biodegradability as key concept in polymer design to mitigate textile-based microplastics pollution, and
ii) bio-recycling as sustainable end-of-life solution. In addition, the supply chain distance is substantially reduced by scaling up a disruptive way of producing the main polymer building block from several bio-based feedstock. The underlying objective of Glaukos is to reduce the carbon and the plastic footprint of clothing and fishing gear.
Finally, integrated methods to assess the biodegradability and ecotoxicity of textile-based microplastics in marine environments will be developed and their standardization initiated.
The objectives of Glaukos are:
- Mitigate microplastic pollution by increasing the biodegradation rate of materials compared to conventional (micro) plastics.
- Reconcile the biodegradation characteristics with technical performance and durability to ensure the effective and long-term use of textile products such as fishing gear and clothing.
- Boost the bio-recycling potential of the Glaukos biobased textile products by developing compatible recycling biocatalysts.
- Develop eco-friendly fishing gear coatings with increased biobased content and increase the biobased content of textile products.
Stakeholder engagement is an integral part of the project:
- Stakeholder Labs will be set up to involve end-users from the clothing and fishing gear industry (e.g. to match technical requirements),
- consumer awareness will be raised via e.g. influencer marketing, and
- the fishing gear industry will be supported as regards to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on fishing gear litter. New Life Cycle Assessment methods will be developed to better assess the plastic footprint of textile value chains.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 814418.
Contact
Dr Zsófia Kádár
Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant VZW
Project Acquisition Coordinator at Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant
zsofia.kadar@bbeu.org
Dr Zsófia Kádár is an internationally experienced bioengineer. She has an M.Sc. in Bioengineering from Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE, Hungary, 1999), MBA (Master of Business Administration, BUTE, 2004) and a PhD in Chemical Engineering (BUTE, 2006). She is specialized in industrial biotechnology, and has expertise in pre-treatment processes of lignocellulosic biomass, fermentation technology, especially in fermentations combined with a microbiological and analytical background. She has participated in several EU and Danish national founded projects as WP leader and project manager. She was also national representative of EERA (European Energy Research Alliance) – Bioenergy Program, Sugar platform. Since 2019 she is working at BBEPP as a Project Acquisition Coordinator. At this moment she coordinates the BBI JU (H2020) Glaukos project (No 887711).