The Waterless Way; CO2 Dyeing

As we have mentioned in the past, Fair JAKE aims to be an environmentally and socially conscious company, so we are always trying to keep up to date with any advancements that can help to reduce the fashion industry's footprint. In past posts such as "Life Cycle Assessment" and "A Little Intro to Eco-Fashion" we have talked about the damaging impacts on the environment; but have not talked about the advancements that been made to reduce this footprint.

Today's post is going to focus on dyeing! We love prints, so dying has always been one of our major hurdles as eco-designers; therefore, we are always looking into low-impact dyes and dye processes. The use of natural and organic fabric tends to mean we don't have to worry about our greenhouse gas emissions as much but we do have to watch out for our water consumption levels. So, you can imagine we were quite intrigued when we found out about DyeCoo's waterless dyeing process.

DyeCoo uses CO2 to dye the fabric and not only is no water necessary, but no drying is necessary and 90% of the excess is then recycled for later use. This shortens the energy usage massively, and believe it or not no chemicals are used in the process. It is just a matter of changing the temperature and pressure; “When carbon dioxide is heated to above 31 degrees Celsius and pressurized to above 74 bar, it becomes supercritical, a state of matter that can be seen as an expanded liquid, or a heavily compressed gas. In short, above the critical point, carbon dioxide has properties of both a liquid and a gas. In this way supercritical CO2 has liquid-like densities, which is advantageous for dissolving hydrophobic dyes, and gas-low viscosities and diffusion properties, which can lead to shorter dyeing times compared to water.” And all of this can be done at the same plant!

The only downfall is that it is more expensive and they are yet to find a way to include natural fibers in their processes. So as most dye processes are a no-go for synthetics the CO2 technique is the opposite thus far. DyeCoo is working on making it possible for cellulous fibers as well, which means this process is a "game changer" as stated by IKEA's chief sustainability officer, Steve Howard.

                                                      

We hope this is just the beginning and that the processes become more and more beneficial as well as more affordable, for us small, local designers trying to make a difference.

-Fair JAKE