Denim Fabric Cotton Recovery by Mechanical Warp-Weft Separation

This project aims to develop a novel mechanical method to conduct separation of denim fabric and recover the warp and weft weaving components in the denim structure. It tackles the difficulty of recycling denim due to the blending composition of yarns, which causes degradation of recycled yarn quality and lower recycling efficiency. Indigo-dyed yarn is recovered and preserved in good quality for further recycling.

This innovation is a response to the fast-growing denim market size, as well as the urgency of recycling post-consumer textile product. The overall market size for denim valued at 90 billion US dollars in 2019, while the demand for cotton has risen 3.1% between 2015 to 2019. Production of virgin cotton requires large agricultural and water resources, together with extensive consumption of fertiliser and pest control chemicals. It is expected that the success of this project can create close loops where post-consumer textile products are disintegrated and then reprocessed back into yarn and recycled into product subsequently.