Introduction

Fabrics made from coffee ground fibre, seaweed, pineapple leaves or recycled plastic bottles are so important as they are the foundation of the fashion industry's greener future.

The textile industry has been implementing new technology and developing the fibre which is innovative and better for the industry in terms of social and environmental sustainable point of view.

The textile industry is directly linked with the next step to ensure the entire industry becomes more sustainable. Majority of the resources used textile industry as a raw material has mainly obtained from natural sources like cotton, jute, linen, etc.

The resulting coffee yarn is multi-functional and can be used in a variety of products, from outdoor and sports performance wear to household items used every day.

The coffee grounds used to create the yarn are taken and recycled from some of the world's largest coffee vendors, like Starbucks. In this way, the company gives a second life to coffee grounds which would have otherwise ended up in the trash.

"There is never a need to waste time and energy to produce the essential S Cafe raw material, as there is always coffee being consumed, therefore there will always be coffee grounds to be collected and used,".

A company of Singtex industries discovers the way to use the coffee ground into wearable textile-like yarn which can further be converted into fabric.

Sintex industrial cop. a world-renowned Taiwanese company is known for the production of functional fabric. Singtex has successfully developed a new eco- friendly product that uses the fibre made from the waste of coffee ground.

Singtex successfully invented the S.Cafe eco-friendly coffee yarn in 2008, which was made from plastic bottles and coffee grounds, this green, high-tech yarn is environmentally friendly, deodorising, and fast-drying, UV-resistant and has many different applications.

Singtex has always set its sights on becoming a world-class eco-friendly functional textile company. It strives to create better and more eco-friendly products without compromising on sustainable development.

Roasting coffee beans is the most fascinating stage of making it into a beverage. One can literally taste the enchanting aroma that roasting coffee beans can create but also contributing to the main component of S.Cafe which is producing coffee ground.

After baking, brewing, and one other patent process, S.Cafe is able to offer something far beyond your wildest imagination.

Processing of Coffee Fibre

S.cafe is technical composite fibre mainly manufactured from coffee grounds. Process of making fabric out of coffee grounds is just similar to that used to bamboo into viscose like material.

The resultant fabric soft, light, flexible and breathable. Singtex has patented a process to transform coffee grounds into S.Cafe yarn through a temperature of 160oC for carbonisation, which is energy efficient in comparison to 600oC for normal yarn.

The basic procedure to obtain the green fibre S.Cafe' yarn includes mixing the coffee residue into a recycled plastic bottle material and re-polymerising to masterbatch and spinning to a coffee yarn, this is the basic procedure.

The raw material is a combination of coffee and recycled polyester; the finished textile quality and appearance are as good as those achieved by using new materials."

Singtex industries created a process to use coffee grounds, which was generally treated as waste, through extraction, nano grinding, metropolis, and wicking material improvement.

This is then used to create technical composite fibre which can be used for knitted and woven clothing. a single cup of coffee can make the two T-shirt.

It is possible to mix the coffee fibre with other material like polyester and more traditional material like nylon. The benefits of these products are more numerous.

The manufacturing process of coffee ground fibre involves the following steps:

1.      Preparation material with coffee residue

The term 'material with coffee residue' includes microencapsulated backed coffee residue, microencapsulated coffee essential oil, microencapsulated fragrance organic compound which is extracted from coffee residue. Coffee essential oil could be extracted from the coffee bean. Then backed coffee residue or coffee essential oil was microencapsulated.

2.     Cleaning or sieving of coffee residue or raw material

The coffee bean waste is rinsed in clean water and then dried, in that case, a ground particle having a size of 20 to 100 micron. Then the ground mixture is sieved. The resultant composition can be sieved into different fine particle sizes between 80 - 100 um.

3.     Removal of organic contents from material with coffee residue

The sieved mixture treated with some solvents to remove the organic contents from the mixture. The extraction of fat is carried out in soxhlet type extractor with ethyl ether. After the fatty acid has been removed, the aqueous solution containing water-soluble constituents is evaporated to reduce the pressure and extracted with absolute alcohol for removal of glycerol.

4.      Preparation of carbonised particles

The mixture from the above 3 steps is collected and carbonised using carbonisation. For example, pyrolysis is the process in which coffee mixture is heated, decomposed and eventually converted into the desired product in the presence of air. Pyrolysis includes carbonisation, charcoal processing, gasification, activated carbon processing. The carbonisation of coffee raw material is done in the presence of chemicals such as zinc chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride or phosphoric acid.

    5. Mixing of material with carbonised material to form a mixture.

    6. Blending the mixture with the polyester chip in a weight ratio of 1:9 to produce a masterbatch.

In this process ground particle and polymer chip (such as PP, Nylon or PET) in the weight ratio of 1:9 are blended to prepare masterbatch. Alternatively, 75 per cent of carbonised particles and 25 per cent the material with coffee fragrance are blended into polymer chip (such as PP, Nylon or PET) to make masterbatch.

    7. Drawing of Yarn from masterbatch.

Important Characteristics of Coffee Fibre

1.      Fast Drying

The main important feature of s cafe technology, coffee ground fibre is having faster drying capacity that means it continuous moves moisture away from the skin to the outer surface of the fabric. Scafe fabric diffuses the body moisture wicks it away from the body to the atmosphere. It is not a temporary kind of finish in the fabric, this feature being permanent will never wash out.

2.     Odor control

Nano-sized coffee granules are permanently embedded in the fibre. these coffee particles absorb the odor. further fabric made from coffee fibre helps to absorb the odour from our body which produced throughout the day.

3.     UV protection

Cafe coffee ground provided with huge microscopic pores which create long-lasting natural and chemical-free shield for fibre or yarn or fabric, which reflects UV rays and provide comfortable outdoor experience.

4.     Eco-friendly

Cafe technology utilises recycled coffee grounds that otherwise would have gone to landfill, expanding the recycling of coffee gives value to the waste.

Apart from this S. cafe is another sustainable yarn which able to cool down the temperature of our body about 1 to 2c compared to common fabrics. In fact, the fabric itself gives the cooling feel.

Environmental Merits of Coffee Fibre

Coffee is one of the world's most popular drinks, as a result of this most of coffee ground is discarded into the environment as waste but Singtex is now collecting the waste grounds from the drinks giant turns into sportswear.

However, it is a new discovery to totally enhance the life cycle of the coffee industry and make the waste more valuable.

The manufacturing process of coffee fibre involves the use of chemicals which are non-toxic in nature, hence they do not create harm to the environment.

The manufacturing of a new product does not require high temperature for carbonization, so its manufacturing process is more efficient. More important point is that the process does not use hazardous chemical as well.

S.cafe fibre come under the environmentally friendly textile as the fibres are 100 per cent biodegradable and do not create an impact on the environment as well.

Instead of focusing on the end-product test, the blue sign is one standard association which analyses all input in producing products from raw material to the chemical component, to water and energy resources.

The blue sign is one textile standard association, these blue sign standards analyze all input in producing an article from raw material to the chemical component, to water and energy resources.

The blue sign standard is dedicated to protecting consumers and reducing the environmental impact by minimizing the waste and emission and reducing resources usage. It designed to solution for reducing the environmental impact.

Major environmental benefits using coffee ground fibre.

100% biodegradable and eco-friendly.

200% fast-drying capacity.

Applications

1.      Apparel Textile

Coffee fibre can be used in apparel Textile like clothing, it can be used in activewear, T-shirts and even sports bras. As the coffee fibre offers 200 per cent faster-drying capacity, it can be used for manufacturing sports cloth. Eco-Friendly fabric can be washed easily without the need of any detergents.

2.      Home furnishings

The coffee ground fibre was used primarily in clothing, but this material can be used as part of the structures in the interior design for coffee shop and home furnishings.

3.     Athletic wear

Roasted coffee has natural deodorising properties so that fabric made from coffee yarn has great application in Athletic wear. Which is designed to soak up the sweat. Apart from this, it is found that coffee fibre is faster drying and serve as UV shield, hence fabric gives a perfect match for athletic wear.

This article has not been edited by Fibre2Fashion staff and is re-published with permission from textilemates.com