Monday  |  Heritage D  |  01:30 PM–01:50 PM

#17733, Development of Sustainable Nonwovens

The COVID19 pandemic significantly accelerated the demand and growth of nonwovens segment, especially for applications in face masks, medical gowns, disinfecting wipes and air filtration. The trend of increased focus on hygiene is expected to continue beyond pandemic. The current sustainable nonwoven substrates are mostly made of wood pulp/ cellulosic fibers and incumbent synthetic substrates widely made from polypropylene or mixed polymer streams. Many of these biobased nonwovens are claimed to be compostable, however, the collection stream and the industrial composting infrastructure to compost such nonwovens are almost non-existent and have higher carbon footprint. Hence, we developed new monomaterial substrates which has potential to deliver alternate sustainability strategy for the value chain. This presentation will address the current challenges/limitations associated with incumbent nonwovens and present data on the development of new nonwovens that provide better performance and sustainable solution.
New fiber grade resins (FGRs) were used to produce nonwoven substrates which were subsequently treated using specific surfactants to create hydrophilic surface. A specific application test method was created to evaluate liquid uptake and liquid release. The new nonwoven substrates were tested to compare liquid uptake/release performance with incumbent substrates and were found to show significantly improved performance which was further analyzed to understand absorption mechanism. The physical substrate performance, such as, tensile strength and abrasion resistance was tested. The new nonwovens provided much enhanced conformance to contoured cleaning surfaces, premium soft feel, and lower CO2 footprint compared to biobased substrates and more options for recyclability. The reduced use of raw materials and simpler supply chain provide additional cost benefits.
This presentation aims to highlight the development process and performance enhancement of new monomaterial nonwovens with alternate sustainability strategy to lower carbon footprint.

Piyush Thakre   DOW