December 21, 2024
State | Northwest Herald
State

Natural Fiber Welding looks to put Peoria on the textile map

By STEVE TARTER

Fred Zwick – Peoria Journal Star via AP Dr. Luke Haverhals, founder and CEO of Natural Fiber Welding In Peoria, examines yarn that is being run through solvents that alter the outer structure of the material. The research at Natural Fiber is working to alter the properties of natural fibers such as cotton in order to increase their strength and anti-microbial properties while still keeping some of the original desirable qualities. Since manufactured fibers such as polyester that contain plastic microfibers are largely petroleum based, the research could lead to a more sustainable product and less plastic pollution. (Fred Zwicki)

PEORIA – The mounting problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans might be as close as your washing machine. And the answer might be as close as the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center.

The fact that every 13-pound load of laundry releases an estimated 700,000 tiny plastic fibers into the environment, according to Great Britain’s Plymouth University, is one of the reasons that Luke Haverhals formed Natural Fiber Welding, a startup company at the Peoria NEXT facility.

“Sixty years ago, the textile industry almost exclusively involved natural materials grown by agriculture. Then, plastic infiltrated the market. Now, roughly 60 percent of all textiles are plastic from petroleum,” said Haverhals, a Bradley University professor for the past four years.

There’s nothing new about polyester suits. DuPont first produced the material in 1951. So what is polyester? It’s a polymer – a long chain of repeating molecular units. The most common variety is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, a plastic derived from crude oil used to make soda and ketchup bottles, Marc Bain said in an article for Quartz magazine.

The use of polyester has grown steadily since the 1950s. Tecnon Orcbichem, a British consulting firm, estimates that world production of the material could approach 100 million tons by 2020 – compared with 25 million tons of cotton.

The problem is that plastic microfibers are released from clothes containing polyester, and the amount of plastic shed from clothing, along with industrial waste and garbage that’s dumped into the ocean, is adding up.

“By 2050, according to World Economic Forum estimates, there will be more tonnage of plastic in the ocean than tonnage of fish,” said Haverhals, who received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Iowa before spending five years as an assistant research professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.

“What we do today will have consequences 50 and 100 years in the future,” he said.

Haverhals and Steve Zika, chief operating officer at Natural Fiber Welding, head up the team that’s working to perfect a process that will allow cotton and other natural fibers to behave like synthetics without being synthetic.

“There are certain performance characteristics that people have come to expect that can only be provided by synthetics,” said Haverhals, stressing the need to deliver a product that can match what’s being offered in stores today.

Based at the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center, the research team is working on manufacturing materials from plant matter – instead of petroleum – that would recreate the textile industry.

The textile industry is interested in this startup’s research efforts.

“The cotton industry is definitely trying to innovate,” Haverhals said.

Although research efforts on textiles are underway at several major universities, the Peoria operation is confident in the technology that it has come up with.

“To date, we’ve been under the radar intentionally,” Haverhals said. “Peoria’s not known as the hotbed for the textile industry, but we look forward to continuing to develop our intellectual property and building our team.”

“We could be in the market within a year. It could be one or two years before you might be able to buy our material at the store.”

For obvious reasons, Natural Fiber Welding isn’t divulging the process or elaborating on how the [chemical] welding process works to process the cotton.

“It’s a marriage of chemistry and automation,” said Haverhals, noting that “robotics assist in this process.”

“We’re not just adding chemistry, but we put it in and then take it out. It’s 100 percent cotton, but better,” he said.

“We’re at that point where we are ready to take on additional investment. We look forward to doing larger things in Peoria. We see a huge market with a lot of potential for growth. We hope that growth occurs right here in central Illinois,” Zika said.

Zika said the firm now has 12 full-time employees along with “a couple of interns.” While the operation moved into the Main Street innovation center in March 2016, NFW also makes use of a building in Pioneer Park, Zika said.