Spinnova And Suzano To Open €50m Commercial Scale Factory For Sustainable Fibre In 2022
Image Courtesy of Spinnova
Material innovation company Spinnova and the world’s largest wood pulp producer Suzano will make an estimated 22 million euro investment to build the first commercial scale SPINNOVA®production facility in Finland.
The total investment, including all needed infrastructure such as real estate, is estimated to be some 50 million euros.
Spinnova’s sustainable fibre, created out of wood and waste without the use of harmful chemicals, will be available for global textile brands in 2022.
The new, industrial scale production unit will be located in Jyväskylä, Finland, home of Spinnova’s R&D hub and pilot facility.
Production will be managed and operated by a new joint venture company owned 50/50 by Spinnova and their partner and investor, Suzano.
The joint venture investment is estimated to be 22 million euros in size. According to Spinnova, the total investment, encompassing all needed infrastructure such as real estate, is some 50 million euros.
The real estate will be built and rented for the joint venture by the Jyväskylä real estate development company Jykia.
“Every leading textile brand is looking for ways to minimise their emissions and ecological footprint, and build a circular material foundation for their products,” says Spinnova’s CEO and co-founder Janne Poranen. “We feel humble and proud that soon we will be able to provide brands our new, disruptively sustainable fibre and fabrics.”
Suzano is a world leader in the production of eucalyptus pulp and has expanded its operations to create sustainable and innovative solutions derived from trees to the challenges faced by society.
In the joint venture, Spinnova will be the exclusive technology provider, while Suzano will ensure the supply of sustainably produced micro-fibrillated cellulose obtained from eucalyptus planted by Suzano in Brazil.
The fibre produced will be sold under the SPINNOVA®trademark.
“Suzano uses only planted trees in its production processes. This renewable raw material is being combined with Spinnova’s technology for producing fibres that are more sustainable than the options currently available in the textile industry, which is aligned with the demands of contemporary society”, says Fernando Bertolucci, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Suzano.
With a process that uses no harmful chemicals and 99% less water than the cotton value chain, the SPINNOVA® fibre can be considered the most sustainable textile fibre there is.
Fibre produced this way creates minimal CO2 emissions, is quickly biodegradable and contains no microplastics.
The fact that these fibres can be recycled into a new fibre again and again makes the SPINNOVA® fibre disruptively circular.
The Spinnova technology enables textile fibre production out of wood but also from textile waste or agricultural waste such wheat or barley straw.
