How Diverse Biobased and Biodegradable Textile and Leather Chemicals are Creating a more Sustainable Future for the Fashion Industry

The start-up SCHUTZEN from India is one of the five finalists of the ISC3 Innovation Award 2024 on the topic of “Innovations in Sustainable Chemistry for Textiles”

According to the United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP) at 10%, the fashion industry is the second largest contributor to environmental pollution in the world after the oil industry. One reason for this are water-intensive manufacturing processes using chemicals, which lead to global warming and toxic wastewater. Reckless chemical design has led to an increase in the release of non-biodegradable and toxic waste into nature. According to SCHUTZEN, a new toxic substance is discovered almost every day, but the innovation of the start-up from India aims to solve that certain problem.

Founder Raj Mahendra Tanna has developed an innovative technology to produce textile and leather chemicals that support biodiversity. His start-up extracts polyols from biologically diverse plants and waste such as Tamarind. These 100% bio-based products have the same properties as the synthetic chemicals commonly used in the textile industry's manufacturing process, but contain no fossil carbon, synthetic nitrogen or phosphorus and no toxic components. “The aim is to rebalance the biogeochemical flows and eliminate the risks associated with the toxic components in chemicals” says Raj Tanna. The chemicals used by the start-up are proven to be biobased, biodegradable and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. The innovative technology is certified and scalable.

With the motto: ‘Only new chemicals can offer new possibilities for old problems’, SCHUTZEN has applied for the Innovation Award 2024 of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3), which is endowed with 25,000 euros. The international jury of 23 experts nominated the start-up as one of five finalists for its contribution to Sustainable Chemistry. They will pitch their ideas at the ISC3 Investor Forum, which will take place this year as part of the Impact Festival on October 30 and 31 in Frankfurt. The ISC3 Innovation Challenge is part of the annual Investor Forum, with which the ISC3 is bringing together international start-ups, investors, scientists and decision-makers for the sixth time. The central question of this year's international competition was: “Which innovative ideas in Sustainable Chemistry have the potential to improve the textile sector?” More than 50 start-ups from 30 countries sent in an application. Their answers range from environmentally friendly production, alternative business models, materials and raw materials to recycling, waste avoidance and biobased and biodegradable textile and leather chemicals, how we experience it at SCHUTZEN.

SCHUTZEN's innovation is based on a patented reaction technology as a building block of polymer technology that makes it possible to manufacture products without outdated and toxic reaction technologies. The start-up replaces the entire range of fossil-based chemicals in the value chain - starting materials, diluents, components, ingredients, fillers and active ingredients - with biobased and biodegradable substances. The products are manufactured together with other novel biomaterial additives that enable the creation of diverse substances with desirable end functionalities for any application. Through this systemic product design, the start-up sets foundation for future application success. The innovative method eliminates the use of fossil carbon and pollutants in textile processing and thus avoids their release into wastewater.  With reference to the GIZ Master Training Program On Water, the consumption of water after dyeing is 56.5 litres per kilogram of fabric. SCHUTZEN reduces the number of batches to from 10 to 3. Therefore, water consumption per tonne of dyed and soaped fabric is reduced by at least 21.000 litres auf water.

“With the targeted reduction of the CO2 footprint and by supporting the conservation of biodiversity through biobased and biodegradable chemicals, SCHUTZEN's innovation has the potential to make an important contribution to a more sustainable textile industry” says Dr. Alexis Bazzanella, Director of the ISC3 Innovation Hub. The start-up thus impressively demonstrates how Sustainable Chemistry can play a decisive role in the transformation towards more resource-efficient textile production.

Get your ticket for the Impact Festival here and experience Schutzens contribution to Sustainable Chemistry live.

More information on the ISC3 Innovation Award 2024, the finalists and the opportunity to experience ideas for Sustainable Chemistry live at the Impact Festival can be found at www.isc3.org (Innovation Challenge and Investor Forum).

Christian Ruth-Strauß
Director Communications ISC3
christian.ruth-strauss@isc3.org

René Sutthoff
Konsequent PR
sutthoff@konsequent-pr.de

About ISC3
The International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre promotes Sustainable Chemistry for a sustainable world. ISC3 supports the chemical industry and chemical-related sectors in their transformation process through sustainable, innovative approaches from Sustainable Chemistry. The goal is a circular economy that implements the multiple aspects of sustainability over the entire life cycle of products and a rethinking of the behaviour of all stakeholders. To advance the dialogue between different sectors and actors worldwide, including Europe and other regions as well as emerging and developing countries, ISC3 follows a multi-stakeholder approach with the networking of policymakers, public and private sectors, education, science and society. It contributes to international chemicals policy, develops professional and academic training programs, advises companies, and promotes start-ups and research. Founded in 2017 by the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, the centre is supported by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and by the Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA e.V.) as ISC3 Innovation Hub and Leuphana University Lüneburg as ISC3 Research & Education Hub. www.isc3.org