Innovation


Melange project aims to make interior textile colouration more circular


Aalto University in Finland and a consortium of partners have launched Melange, a new EU project attempting to trans- form colouration practices in the European interior textile industry. Fabric colouration is one of the most resource-intensive stages in textile production with the pursuit of uniformity in fibres, yarns, and fabrics, representing a key challenge to circularity. Conventionally, colour is applied at the end of the manufacturing process to achieve replicability and uniformity, but this comes at high cost in water, energy, and chemicals. The project is looking at ways to move colouration to the beginning of the process instead. The Melange project is using


practice from Prato in Italy, which blends pre-coloured recycled wool fibres by shade, avoiding re-dyeing and treating variation as a valued aesthetic. By shifting colouration


upstream and making imperfec- tion desirable, the project aims to cut water and chemical use by up to 50% compared with conventional finishing-stage processes. It will focus on interior


Aalto University in Finland is leading the project consortium. Image: Melange


Aalto University in Finland is leading the project consortium. Image: Melange


design as a driver of sustainable competitiveness in the European interior textile industry, advancing low-impact fibre-stage colouration technologies, such as spin-


dyeing and using inherently coloured natural fibres, treating colour variation as a signature of uniqueness rather than a defect.


Its inspiration is a heritage


textiles, which account for roughly one-third of global textile production, and recognises that changing how colour is made is not a single-discipline problem. Melange is an EU Horizon


Europe project, running for 36 months with a total budget of around €4m. •www.aalto.fi • www.melange-design.eu


commercial plant, which targets a capacity of 50,000 tonnes/yr. • www.depoly.co


Epoch acquires PA


facility UK biotech startup Epoch Biodesign is acquiring a 52,000 tonnes/yr polyamide (nylon) 66


plant in Blanes, Spain, for over €4m. The site was formerly run


by Domo Chemicals, whose Spanish entity entered insolvency earlier this year. It will fully integrate Epoch’s production of recycled PA 66, made using an enzymatic process.


32 Textiles Loop • Autumn 2026


Following a €10.3m funding


round earlier this year, Epoch has been building a demonstra- tion plant for its technology in London, UK. Jacob Nathan, Founder and CEO of Epoch, said the company’s enzymatic process is notable because it does not require high temperatures, nor demand the heavy industrial infrastructure that has historically meant manufactur- ing must be sited far from where people live and work. By combining AI and


advanced synthetic biology, Epoch’s ultra-low emission process designs enzymes to efficiently recycle end-of-life plastic and textile waste at a commercial scale. These


monomers can re-enter the PA 66 supply chain. The demo plant is planned to open later this year. • www.epochbiodesign.com


Carbios advances


biorecyling Enzymatic recycling company Carbios said it has successfully manufactured, on European industrial lines, high-quality recycled polyester T-shirts from complex textile and plastic waste, in partnership with the Fiber-to-Fiber Consortium: Patagonia, Puma, and Salomon. “This achievement demon-


strates that enzymatic recycling meets the highest requirements


of the textile industry,” said Benoît Grenot, Managing Director of Carbios. “By transforming complex waste into high-purity molecular building blocks for the produc- tion of recycled polyester, we prove that circularity is already an operational reality that can be concretely deployed on an industrial scale.” The company said the


advancement demonstrates the ability of Carbios’ biorecycling technology to transform complex waste into high-per- formance textile products while the production of the garment itself illustrates the feasibility of large-scale circular textile production. • www.carbios.com


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