Bringing biology back into the textile industry
For centuries, artisanal methods have been used to transform raw natural materials into goods. One of the world’s earliest and most important textile dyes, indigo, was produced from ancient Egypt to pre-Hispanic South America through crushing, drying, and wetting several natural ingredients. Namely, species of plants from the Indigofera genus were often heated in wooden fermentation vats to extract the unique indigo dye.
Most of the modern textile industry has turned to synthetic processes for scaling up production. These involve large reactions of chemical precursors, many of which–directly or via byproducts–are toxic to the environment and difficult to break down.
Recent efforts for more sustainable approaches to textile production have combined the man-made and the natural. Scientists have engineered the Komagataeibacter xylinus bacterium to overproduce a natural fibrous polymer, biocellulose, that can be woven into fabric. Further, the researchers engineered Escherichia coli strains that synthesize a broad range of colorful compounds to dye the material. Using a sequential or “one-pot” approach, they established protocols for dying bioinspired material without use of synthetic chemicals. Durability tests revealed that these colorful sheets held up to industry standards, even outperforming some synthetic textiles after multiple wash-dry cycles.
While the authors anticipate the method to be established within five years, the work toward transforming this major industry into a more sustainable one is far from complete. Major hurdles in scalability and cost must be overcome to compete with current synthetic textile production, but if they succeed, the future of the textile industry may involve the handiwork of color-capturing microbes!
Managing Correspondent: David Zahrah
Press Article: Bacteria spin rainbow-colored, sustainable textiles, Phys.org
Original Research Article: One-pot production of colored bacterial cellulose, Trends in Biotechnology
Image credit: pexels