Page 172 - CW E-Magazine (8-4-2025)

News from Abroad

NATURAL INGREDIENTS
Sironix Renewables gets new funding support to scale

up personal care & cleaning ingredients manufacturing

Sironix Renewables, a US-based conditions which have conventionally
start-up specialising in naturals-based challenged plant-based cleaners, and has
personal care & cleaning ingredients, excellent skin mildness. In addition, the
said it has received a new funding of manufacturing of Sironix’s bio-based
$3.5-mn, that will help rapidly scale up ingredient is claimed to reduce green-
its manufacturing operations to meet house gas impact by 52% compared
market demand for sustainable ingre- with incumbent petrochemicals.
dients in the cleaning products and
personal care industries. Sironix is currently working with
several major consumer brand partners
This latest funding round was led by volume manufacturing, taking us one step in the cleaning and personal care indus-
Arosa Ventures and Oval Park Capital, closer to our mission of becoming the tries and is exploring partnerships for
along with SNØCAP, EGB Capital and premier supplier of non-toxic, high per- industrial applications. With a variety
the University of Minnesota. To date, formance and eco-friendly ingredients of existing off-the-shelf formulations,
the company has also received $7-mn in for the cleaning product and personal Sironix plans to take on several addi-
grants and partnership funding, includ- care industries.” tional brand partners as it scales up
ing from the Indiana Soybean Alliance production in the US.
and the United Soybean Board. Sironix Sironix’s first product, the Eosix sur-
CEO and co-founder Mr. Christoph factant, is made 100% from plants and “We are focused on continuing to
Krumm, said, “This additional funding is free from sulphates and 1,4-dioxane, scale the future of surfactants to change
will enable us to rapidly transition a probable carcinogen. It boasts superior the way the world cleans,” emphasised
from bench-scale to pilot-scale to high- performance in hard and cold water, Mr. Krumm.
TEXTILE RECYCLING BREAKTHROUGH
Aquafil’s pilot plant in Italy achieves success

in chemically separating elastic fibres from nylon

Italian nylon producer, Aquafil, has ny’s R&D team persevered and in 2022 coming the fibre separation barrier.
unveiled a breakthrough in textile recyc- filed a new, refined patent. Now, with Aquafil said it will now look to refine
ling by chemically separating elastic the launch of this pilot plant, lab suc- and scale the process to an industrial
fibres from nylon on a demonstration cesses have translated into real-world level in order to process impactful
scale. application. “This is a game-changer volumes of material. To support this,
for recycling notoriously difficult Aquafil has built a network of part-
The technology tackles one of the textile waste – particularly from sports ners to secure a steady supply of post-
textile industry’s most complex chal- wear and swimwear – where different use materials and ensure the develop-
lenges, opening the door to new possi- fibres are tightly bound and nearly ment of a robust, efficient recycling
bilities in recycling and circularity. impossible to recover,” the company supply chain.
informed.
Aquafil, had in 2013, partnered with The nylon recovered through this
Georgia Tech University to explore For years, these composite textiles process will be regenerated at the
solutions for recycling mixed fibres – have been destined for landfills, despite Econyl caprolactam plant, transforming
a task long deemed insurmountable. containing valuable material that waste into high-quality regenerated
Although the initial patent did not lead could be recycled. Aquafil’s process nylon ready for new textile appli-
to industrial-scale results, the compa- has solved this challenge by over- cations.

172 Chemical Weekly April 8, 2025

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