Category: Innovation

Microorganisms Bring Eco-Friendly Color To Fashion

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More and more these days we’re being urged to go green – to use ethically-sourced products, recycle more and try to reduce our carbon footprint. That awareness has even spread to the fashion industry.

Colorifix, a British biotech startup, uses a synthetic biology approach to produce, deposit, and fix pigments onto textiles. The method of textile dyeing taps into the bright colors of birds and butterflies and has micro-organisms recreate them on fabric, slashing the use of water and heavy chemicals in the process,

“We’re harnessing the ability of microbes, in this case, to be able to deposit and fix a pigment on to fabric.”

–Colorifix Chief Scientific Officer Jim Ajioka

Dyeing with synthetic pigments uses large concentrations of hazardous chemicals such as chromium and heavy metal salts. It also consumes vast amounts of energy and water.

In contrast, Colorifix says its method uses no hazardous chemicals and cuts water use by up to 90% depending on equipment, pigment, and fabric.

Apparel is one of the top-polluting industries. Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable products and pushing image-conscious retailers to address the environmental impact of their clothes’ full life cycle. The dyeing stage has one of the biggest.

Colorifix expects to launch commercially its 5-ml batches of microbes bulging with color in 2020. Challenges include creating new hues on-demand, maintaining standards of current processes, and keeping costs down.

Colorifix’s backers include H&M, Swiss investment firm Challenger 88, and Cambridge University.

5 Smart City Technology Trends

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Cities have faced traditional challenges like congestion, pollution, and safety for decades, and most have a plan to combat them. Meanwhile, cyberattacks, climate change, and natural disasters are new threats currently mounting, which require new approaches and an expanded range of technologies to create true strategy shifts. Digital twins & urban modeling, resilient cities, circular cities, micro-mobility, and smart spaces have been identified as those shifts poised to make smart cities even smarter.

A Circular Economy for Salt that Keeps Rivers Clean

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During the winter of 2018-2019, one million tons of salt were applied to icy roads in the state of Pennsylvania alone. The salt from industrial uses like this often ends up in freshwater rivers, making their water undrinkable and contributing to a growing global crisis. How can we better protect these precious natural resources? Physical organic chemist Tina Arrowood shares a three-step plan to keep salt out of rivers – and create a circular salt economy that turns industrial byproducts into valuable resources.