In this episode, we talk to Dr.VG from Americhem on solution dyeing & its advantages. We go in-depth on why this is a sustainable and state of the art solution for the synthetic fibre industry. This is an detailed conversation with one of the foremost minds in the industry. Not an episode to be missed out on!

Spinning Values Podcast: Episode 3 - Part 2

Listen to Dr. V.G. Kulkarni, as we discuss solution dyeing & its advantages.

Solution dyeing is an component for Beekaylon Synthetics. In part 2 of episode 3 we go into a detailed discussion with Dr. VG on this topic. Do subscribe to this podcast on your favourite podcast app.

Transcript of the Conversation with with Dr. VG Kulkarni

Dr. VG - Solution Dyeing - Episode 3 - part 2

Solution dyeing in itself addresses three major sustainability aspects. Conservation of water uses less energy and it limits the wastewater generations. And more importantly, the technologies available today while we can improve it further. We can put it into use today and address some of the major sustainability needs of the textile industries.

Rajeev

 This is spinning values, a podcast initiative by Beekaylon synthetics. And I'm your host Rajeev. At spinning values, we bring you every month an interview with leading experts on synthetic yarn technology from around the globe.

We break down complex concepts and explore ideas that are at the forefront of sustainable manufacturing in today's circular economy.

This is episode number three, and we are talking to Dr. VG. Kulkarni from Americhem.  A globally recognized manufacturer of custom color Masterbatches , functional additives, engineering compounds and performance technologies. Dr. VG as he is popularly known, heads technology and business development at Americhem.

 Welcome to part two of episode three. In part one, we discussed BCF and its applications.  In this final part of episode three, Dr. VG does a deep dive into the world of masterbatch design and why it is a sustainable solution for the textile industry.

So without further ado, let's get into the discussion.

Welcome back to the show Dr. VG.

Dr. VG

Hi Rajeev.

Rajeev

 As many of our listeners might be listening to this episode for the first time. So. can we start with a brief intro about yourself Dr. VG, and a little bit of your background.

Dr. VG

 yes. my name is Vaman Kulkarni. . most people in the industry know me as VG. I have over 30 years of experience in the. polymer and plastic industry. A lot of it  in the fiber industry. I've been with the Americhem also about 30 years. And currently I lead the technology development and business development for our fibers group..

Rajeev

So in part one, we did a deep dive into BCF and its applications, its importance and so on.  what are we going to discuss today? Dr. VG?

Dr. VG

Yeah, it's primarily I think about the textiles and how solution dyeing can help textiles in the overall big picture of sustainability of textile materials.

Rajeev

So it's going to be textile solution dyeing and its importance, its advantages and so on. Alright,  let's get the ball rolling. here's my first question to you. Can you give our listeners an overview of textiles and the concept of solution dyeing and what is its relationship with sustainability?  How can that be a sustainable solution?

Dr. VG

Yep. Yeah. Let's start with the textiles In a broad sense textiles are materials that are made by weaving yarns. Yeah. The basic materials are fibers that are derived from two sources synthetic and natural and natural can be plant origin like, cotton or or rayon or could be from animal origin, like silk or, wool. Synthetic on the other hand derived from materials such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.

So, and if you look at the use of these materials in textiles, synthetics make about two thirds of all the fibers used  in textiles and naturals make about one third of it. And if you look at individual fibers in use in the overall field of textiles, polyester is by far the largest volume fiber it accounts for a little over 50% of all the fibers used in textiles.

And cotton is the second most used which accounts for roughly about 25% or so. And when typically when people talk of textiles one typically associates with clothing, but textiles are used in a, quite a range of applications beyond  apparel. be it home furnishing or automotive fabrics or industrial fabrics, touching upon uh,  the concept of a solution dyeing quite simply.

we can put it as a technique used for coloring synthetic fibers. Okay. So when you look at color in textiles, generally two methods are used for coloring. One, we call it classic dyeing, which has been historically used to color natural fibers. the second one is solution dyeing or spin dyeing. so in the classic dyeing you first make the white fiber or use the naturally occurring white fibers.

And the coloring is done in a second step. So it's, you could call it fiber first and then coloring. Whereas in a solution or spin dyeing process. You first add the colorant to the molten polymer and then force the molten polymer through a spinnaret and make fibers out of it. So in a sense, in solution dyeing, you are combining the spinning and coloring into one step. So the two key differences between the two, the classic dyeing and the spin dyeing, or the solution dyeing.  In classic dyeing again, as we talked about fiber first and then color and in solution dyeing polymer colored first and then fiber is formed and, and that  other differences also the colorants that we used for two different methods is also different.

obviously solution dyeing is a technique for synthetic fibers. it is not applicable to natural fibers such as cotton because they're already in the form of a fibers.

Rajeev

Right.

Dr. VG

And then the key topic of sustainability and how does masterbatch and solution dyeing play into sustainability? the sustainability by itself is a very complex concept for most people.

it's it's about being environmentally friendly.  but you know, if you were to Google, what is sustainability in a you'll end up with quite a few definitions? the, some of the key ones are, meeting today's needs without compromising the future for it. Second one could be caring for planet.

Again, being environmentally friendly, socially responsible ecological balance, and all those concepts, the use of renewable resources could be another or these days, everybody talks about carbon efficiency, carbon footprint, and all. So the bottom line in sustainability is that we have one planet. And limited resources. sustainability is tied to your and my daily activities, making better use of our resources recycling instead of wasting smarter use of energy and so on and so forth.  I think that, that in, in is a good broad view of sustainability and we can discuss more as we go along.

Rajeev

Yeah. So keeping on the same topic of sustainability, can we deep dive into what it actually means for the textile industry?

Dr. VG

 okay. Sure. so like food and shelter textile is a basic need. Okay. So in a broad brush statement,   meeting, the needs of the textile industry or the meeting, the textile needs, of the global population while being mindful of environmental, social and economic constraints in a nutshell is the sustainability goals.

Okay. it must address all aspects of the life cycle of textiles every process from raw material all the way to the end of life. So ideally we would like to have all fibers from renewable resources, or recycled materials, for example, without using any of the fossil fuel, use limited natural resources such as water and energy and limit waste.

And more importantly as we'll talk about a sustainable coloring methods as coloring is very important to textiles. Okay. And at the end of life whether we can recycle it or is it biodegradable? So, so that that's the ideal case scenario. But we don't have, we don't live an ideal cases all the time.

So if you look at the sustainability through the two largest textile fibers and how we can address them now, whereas we talked about polyester is the largest textile fiber used. So today bulk of polyester and other synthetics are made from petroleum resource. Okay, but they use limited amount of water during  production. Cotton, on the other hand, is a renewable resources, but it needs a large amount of land, a significant amount of water to grow. And then use of pesticides and other stuff.   following up on that dyeing is another very water intensive process. Now, if you look at all of this coloring is so central to all the textile materials that we use.

I mean, both the materials that you and I use in a very small portion of those is white in color, predominantly they're all colored. So,  while there are multiple opportunities  for sustainability in textiles, Addressing coloring. Or smart coloring  it's a big one. let's look at the some statistics, for example,  some estimates put some 5 trillion liters of water is used in the dyeing process.

And approximately 20% of the waste water globally encountered comes from fabric. In addition, dyes and chemicals can end up as affluence and roughly about 10% of carbon emissions of carbon footprint that, some people equate that to the dyeing process in the textiles. Now we talked about polyester being, eh large synthetic fiber used in the textile industry.

They can be colored by solution dyeing and it solution dyeing in itself addresses three major sustainability aspects. Conservation of water uses less energy and it limits the waste water generations. And more importantly, the technologies available today while we can improve it further. We can put it into use today and address some of the major sustainability needs of the textile industries.

And lastly, in the end of life, when the textile, whether it is automotive seat fabric or apparel, and it is used, what are our recycling options? And generally synthetics have more recycling options compared to natural.

Rajeev

So that was an interesting take on sustainability, Dr. VG, because sustainability is always seen from. One angle. You mean?

Yeah, exactly. So it's it's only one side of things that people see because that's what is more the popular view of it. the other side, people don't actually know. see it. So it's an interesting take on the sustainability aspect of it, It's not a popular view.  So, keeping that in  mind, mostly the concern today about plastic waste and its impact on environment. Polyester being such a large portion of textile industry. Can you sort of enlighten our listeners about sustainability in regard to polyester and what kind of value addition that we can do.

Dr. VG

Yeah, certainly Rajeev as you, yeah. As you rightly pointed out for many people, when they think of plastics in general, or the plastic litter that they see around it. The immediate thing is, oh, it's all derived from a petroleum. We should not be using it. Yeah, we should ban it. So,  that's in a nutshell, what talk about taking a single concept and then doing that.

But, in sustainability, we have to take a 360 view of things. Okay. So again, not going too much into plastics. that could be a different podcast by itself, focusing ourself on a polyester, which is the largest a textile fiber. So, okay. So let's look at it through the lifecycle of polyester first, the resin and the fiber production.

Granted a bulk of polyester today is made from petroleum resources. Okay. However, only a small portion of petroleum about 1% or less is used in making polyester fiber, in contrast quite a bit of petrol is used to drive and your and my automobile and many other energy needs Secondly, some polyester is already been made from renewable resources.

like for example is made from bio-derived Meg or PTT poly trimethylene terephthalate it is made from bio-derived. So in addition to the bulk of the polyester, being derived from petroleum researches albeit uses a small amount of petroleum there are efforts to have renewable resources had it.

Secondly, recycling. Okay. From an end of life perspective, polyester is one of the largest recycled polymers. Okay. A large amount of fiber is made from recycled water bottles.  that are being discarded. Number one, it keeps plastic bottles from landfills. Okay. Secondly, textile waste and discarded textiles are also being converted into into, back into fibre.

A recycled fiber. If you look at it uses less energy to make the same end article related to the watch and polymer you'd need fewer resources, lower carbon dioxide emissions, and the list can go on and out. So, and we will recycled polyester.  has a good future and continuously will expand.

We will need to be more effective in providing effective means of recycling. So, and we touched upon coloring so sustainable coloring. we talked about unlike natural fibers, polyester canvas solution dyed, and it's an environmentally friendly process. Some of the challenging areas biodegradability of synthetic fibers work is going on in there.

all people also talk about microfiber release into the water streams. research is going on that, but if you look at the overall picture you can see that there is lot of effort that is going into. The entire life cycle of the polyester textile industry, from the point of sustainability.

Rajeev

 That kind of gives us a clear view of what sustainability means for the textile industry, sort of a 360 degree view of it. That is pretty interesting. Let's look at the masterbatch industry that's helping sustainability to polyester textiles. How does it relate to coloring and value addition?

Dr. VG

Certainly Rajeev, first and foremost, let's dive a little bit into solution dyed because that is what the masterbatch industry brings to the table. So, okay. We touched on some elements of this earlier in the talk. So first of all, it's an environmentally friendly process. It does not use water.

So practically no effluent. it uses less energy. We, as we talked about, since we are doing it, the spinning and coloring into one step, And these are the sustainable benefits that one can get from solution dyeing using Masterbatches. But at the same time, the masterbatch design offers you to, with the.

Product performance,  we could have better coloring, a higher quality color, or better color control, or excellent color fastness in outdoor application and so on. So, so it, it not only addresses the three fundamental issues with the, of the sustainability being. in a water and energy and, and pollution, it, it provides a total higher quality color and synthetics being two thirds of the textile fiber industry.

I think if we could add up a solution dyeing, I think it can be a very great, sustainable contribution to the textile industry. And. Speaking of recycle, we talked about recycled polymer is increasing day by day. So you've combined a masterbatch solution dyeing with Masterbatches with recycled polymers.

It is like a sustainability on steroids are turbo charged!. So it's, first of all, the polymer is used as recycled.. That contributes to sustainability and coloring, using masterbatch that contributes to additional. So   it's a perfect fit from that point of view. Second,  when we talk about recycle quality most right.

recycled polymers. In the generally is, has a little bit of yellow tint to it. So what the masterbatch industry does is it makes possible. To use the recycled polymer, but addressing some of the drawbacks, be it color or be some deficiency in its part. So what we,  bring two solutions in there, here one we called renewable additive basically by adding this, we are making the recycled fiber look more like virgin.

Secondly, the recycle content probably can have in most cases, a lower IV and less properties, and we can bring the IV and properties back. Okay. So, and in addition, there are certain applications in textiles, for example, in Cationic dyeing or atmospheric dyeing. the polyester as we know traditional polyester that is used to make textiles, it cannot be dyed under the atmospheric conditions and cannot be dyed with cationic dyes.

Both of these properties are incorporated during the polymer manufacturer of the virgin resin. But when you're doing recycled fibers from the bottles bottle grade resin recycled bottles, that polymer is not capable of being dyed under these conditions. So masterbatch is a very effective way. in many cases, the only way to add cationic dyeble property.

As well as atmospheric or easy dye properties.

Rajeev

We talked about the evaluation and solution dyeing. So let's talk about color  Also talk about functional additives, right? So, can we do a deep dive into functional additives?

Dr. VG

Yeah, certainly. Yeah. again, color is an important property in a practically every textile material is colored, but the colored. Often needs to be combined with other functional properties because   the articles are used under different conditions. For example, take a awnings or outdoor fabrics.

Okay. When you use textiles in outdoor, two things are critical. Number one, they're durable color. And number two, what we talk about the UV stability or property retention, when it is used in outdoors, it's constantly exposed to sun and sun, then UV, it can have a negative impact on the properties. So a masterbatch can address color as well as UV or tenacity retention, not fiscal, proper retention.

 If you look at the, for example, anti-microbials as value addition, they can be used in performance apparel that textiles used in healthcare industry or other applications, generally microbes, some of the textile finishes and et cetera, that are apparent on the  fiber.  they can act as food for bacteria.

So because of that, they can create foul odour or staining of the textiles and use of antimicrobial additives imparts anti-microbial and anti viral properties to the fabric. So, Textiles are also used in for example, ESD garments are, are protective suits that are used in clean rooms, for example, and, and in floor coatings, and they need  static dissipative properties as you know, plastic by themselves and polyester.

Untreated polyester they are insulators. So anti static or conductive yarns could be prepared by using Masterbatches and that could add, be used as a value added fibers. And lastly, let's take another example of a flame retardants, for example, plastics are inherently flammable, Now textiles are used in home, furnishing transportation, hotels, restaurants, cruise lines, you name it.

So all of those areas, flame retardancy is an useful property. And in fact it is a necessary property for many of these applications, you know, historically , some of the flame retardants in polyester textiles  was done through polymerization route,   or flame-retardant chip, for example, but we can introduce flame retardancy through use of masterbatch.

And the beauty of using flame retardancy Masterbatches is you can design, you can tailor, make the flame retardancy, depending on the applications. So it gives you a flexibility from that standpoint.

Rajeev

 Right, sir, so we talked  about the color. We talked about value addition of masterbatch or solution dyeing. and what solution dyeing brings to the textile industry as a whole. Can you  summarize all of this and bring it together for our listeners?



Dr. VG

Yeah. Yeah, certainly we as masterbatch producers along working with fiber producers, okay. Can have a huge impact on how we color polyester. And not necessarily polyester the synthetics as a whole and use more of recycled contents. So by providing a responsible way of coloring by providing a means of using more recycled content, I think  the fiber producer and the masterbatch producer can add significantly to the textile value chain.

Responsible coloring, that that's a key thing, again, we talked about, we can say water and energy and minimize pollutions, and.   it's a truly environmentally friendly way there is no other thought about it. And the key thing is among all the ways, all the different ways sustainability can be incorporated into the textile industry.

I think a responsible coloring and use of recycled content is. I would not say easy, but it's relatively easy. The technology is here, we need to adapt it. So again, one of the key thing is the design of the Masterbatches. Okay. Not all Masterbatches are created equal.. we have the opportunity as a masterbatch industry to raise the bar to bring out the best.

Whether it is color, whether it is functionality to the textile materials.

Rajeev

 So this a lot of talk about climate change and the various policy decisions that governments are taking in order to kind of wind back the clock to previous levels. Of CO2 emissions or whatever the case may be. And when Joe Biden's administration has a very lofty ambitions in order to, stop climate change because the clock is ticking.

So  keeping all that in mind, what do you see the future looking like 10, 20 years from now.

Dr. VG

Yeah, that's an interesting  question Rajeev!,  first of all, let's say that the impact of textile industry on a planet issue. it involved the whole life cycle, ranging from the raw material to the disposal. they end up article, but more importantly, it involves everybody, whether it is the policymakers or the resin producers, the fiber producers, and also the users. like you and me.. Okay. And  so players in all segments of the life cycle have an opportunity.  for innovation here. I expect the polyester will continue to be the dominant textile fiber. I don't see any alternative to that. The solution dyeing as a coloring technique or the sustainable coloring method should continue to expand..

You know, if you're looking at it, all things considered the polyester textiles are, very effective in serving the global population, the needs of the global population. so if you look at the overall eco balance, it it's a reasonably favourable.. If you look at the 360 view and it can only get better with the cradle to cradle innovation that is ongoing.

So, and one other thing that we don't talk about about textiles and plastics also, while today  some of these are derived from petroleum, they also help in saving petroleum through lightweighting and recycling. so again, the bottom line is we all can be part of the solution, so we all need to do our part.

Rajeev

 Thanks Dr. VG. Yeah. Valuable views on this. it gives  the listeners a 360 degree view on this subject because most often the media shows this through a kind of a colored prism, and not the actual fact of the matter. So this gives a different perspective to the whole issue. So thanks.

Thank you. for this part one, and part two series of BCF and a solution dyeing, I think  it's going to be pretty useful for the listeners. And so thanks for your time.

 And that was a wrap for episode three of spinning values. That was a fantastic conversation with Dr. VG. Spinning values is brought to you by Beekaylon Synthetics. If you want to know more about Beekaylon or want to listen to the past two episodes, then head over to Brands.Beeyalon.com.

  There is a wealth of information of sustainable products and solutions.  Do share this podcast with someone, who's interested in sustainable solutions for the textile industry.  So catch you in the next episode. Till then stay safe and stay productive.