It’s a New Material With a Huge Upside for the Planet
We took the same technology we’ve already demonstrated as a replacement for petroleum in plastic bottles, diesel, gasoline and jet fuel and applied it to fabric production. The result? The first ever bio-polyester shirt made from 100% renewable resources. But as excited as we are about the fabric—which feels, performs and wears just like traditional polyester—this breakthrough is much bigger than a shirt.
Look around you: polyester is everywhere. From sportswear to high-end fashion, to household and automotive uses, polyester is one of the fastest-growing materials on the planet. And no wonder. It’s a versatile and durable fiber that blends well with other fibers. The problem is that until now polyester fibers and fabric were only produced from crude oil. That’s right: many of the clothes you wear every day are made of oil.
But here’s where our proprietary technology comes in. We produce a key raw material for polyester, paraxylene, from natural, plant-based resources. This bio-paraxylene is identical to traditional paraxylene with one huge difference: It’s made from a 100% renewable resource, so its production results in much lower emissions of carbon, which is a contributor to climate change. The end result, our bio-polyester, performs exactly like traditional polyester because it’s chemically identical.
That’s why this news is bigger than a shirt. Imagine a future where all the everyday products we use that contain traditional polyester are made from completely renewable resources. From bottles to shirts, we can expect identical performance from bio-polyester but without the environmental cost of using fossil fuels.