Latest / The Manufacturing Podcast with Fexingo: Factories, Supply Chains, and Industrial Business / How a Finnish Factory Turns Wood Into Clothing Without Chemicals
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a factory in Jyväskylä, Finland, that takes wood chips — just standard pine and spruce — and turns them into a fluffy fiber that can be spun into yarn and woven into t-shirts and jeans. And they do it without dissolving the wood in toxic chemicals, which is how most rayon and viscose are made. Luna: Wait — so this isn't the usual viscose process where you use carbon disulfide and all that? Because I've read those plants have serious environmental issues. Lucas: Exactly right. Traditional viscose uses carbon disulfide, which is hazardous to workers and can pollute waterways. The company here is Spinnova. They grind wood chips into a pulp, then mechanically fibrillate it — basically shredding the fibers until they become a thick paste. Then they extrude that paste through tiny holes into a fiber, and that's it. No dissolving, no chemical regeneration. Luna: So it's like a mechanical process similar to how paper is made, but at a much finer scale. Lucas: Right. And because there are no chemicals, the water usage plummets. Spinnova claims their process uses less than two liters of water per kilogram of fiber. Compare that to conventional cotton, which can take two thousand to five thousand liters per kilogram. Or even standard viscose, which uses around three hundred liters per kilogram. Luna: Those numbers are staggering. But how does it perform in terms of feel and durability? I mean, if it feels like sandpaper, no one's going to wear it. Lucas: Fair question. I've actually handled a sample — a scarf made from Spinnova fiber. It feels soft, similar to a blend of cotton and linen. It has a nice drape. The fiber is also fully recyclable and biodegradable. As for durability, brands like Adidas and H&M have been testing it in limited runs. H&M used it in a Conscious collection in 2024. The feedback has been positive, but it's still early. Luna: And cost? Because sustainable materials often come with a green premium that limits them to high-end niches. Lucas: Currently, Spinnova fiber costs roughly two to three times more than conventional cotton. But they're scaling. Their first commercial plant opened in 2023, with a capacity of about one thousand tons per year. That might sound like a lot, but global textile fiber production is over a hundred million tons annually. So they're a drop in the bucket. However, a second plant is under construction in Brazil, in partnership with Suzano, the world's largest pulp producer. That plant will have a capacity of ten thousand tons per year, and it's scheduled to start up in 2027. Luna: So the cost should come down with scale. But what about the raw material — are they using virgin wood? That feels like it has its own environmental footprint. Lucas: They use wood from certified sustainable forests. And importantly, they can also use agricultural waste — like wheat straw, corn stalks, even textile waste. In fact, Spinnova has developed a process to turn old cotton t-shirts back into new fiber. So it's not just virgin wood. They're aiming for a fully circular system. Luna: That's actually a perfect segue to something I wanted to bring up. We cover a lot of these breakthrough manufacturing processes on this show — stuff that could genuinely shift whole industries. And we do it without any sponsor breaks or ads. Lucas: That's by design. We believe these conversations should be accessible, not interrupted by commercials. If you're someone who listens while you're driving to your facility or sketching out your next product line, and you've found value in these episodes, there's a way to support that independence. Luna: Yeah, it's simple. Just go to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No subscription, no recurring charges. It's a way to buy us a coffee and keep these ad-free stories coming. Lucas: And we appreciate every single contribution. It really does help us stay focused on the substance rather than the revenue. Alright — back to Spinnova. Let's talk about the bigger picture for the fashion industry. Luna: So if this tech scales, what does it mean for the carbon footprint of the average t-shirt? Lucas: Spinnova's lifecycle analysis shows their fiber has a carbon footprint of about 1.27 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of fiber. That's roughly 99 percent lower than conventional viscose and about 80 percent lower than organic cotton. For a typical T-shirt that weighs 200 grams, the carbon savings would be significant. If the world shifted even one percent of global textile production to mechanical fiber, you'd be looking at millions of tons of CO2 avoided annually. Luna: But what about synthetics like polyester? They're cheap and perform well. Lucas: Polyester is the elephant in the room. It accounts for over half of all textile fibers. It's cheap, durable, and wrinkle-resistant. But it's derived from petroleum, and it sheds microplastics. Spinnova can't compete on cost with polyester yet, and their fiber doesn't have the same stretch or water resistance. So it's not a direct replacement for activewear. But for basics — t-shirts, denim, sheets — it's very promising. Luna: Are there other players in this space? It can't just be Spinnova. Lucas: There are several. In Sweden, there's a company called TreeToTextile, backed by H&M and Stora Enso. They use a similar mechanical process but with a different approach to dissolving the pulp. In the US, there's Renewcell, which takes cotton waste and turns it into a dissolving pulp that can then be spun into viscose — though that still uses chemicals. And there's Infinited Fiber Company in Finland, which uses a carbamate process for textile waste. But Spinnova is unique because of the completely chemical-free mechanical route. Luna: So it's a crowded field. What's Spinnova's edge? Lucas: The simplicity. Their process runs at relatively low temperatures, uses no chemicals, and can handle a variety of feedstocks. That makes the plants cheaper to build and easier to permit, because you don't have to worry about chemical handling and waste treatment. Plus, they've already proven the tech at commercial scale, which is more than most competitors can say. Luna: But they're still tiny. How big do they need to get to be relevant to, say, a company like Inditex or Nike? Lucas: Inditex sells over a billion garments a year. To supply even one percent of that, you'd need tens of thousands of tons of fiber. Spinnova's Brazilian plant will get them to ten thousand tons. They need to be at a hundred thousand tons to be a serious player. They've announced plans for a third plant, likely in Central Europe. But scaling from lab to pilot to commercial is the hardest part of any manufacturing innovation. Luna: What's the biggest risk you see going forward? Lucas: The cost curve. They need to get the price down to around $2 per kilogram to compete with conventional polyester. Currently, it's closer to $5 or $6. They need technological improvements and economies of scale. Also, they have to ensure that their supply of sustainable raw materials can grow with them. But if they succeed, it could be a game-changer for the fashion industry's water and chemical footprint. Luna: So we are watching a potential revolution, but it's in the early innings. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why we cover it. The technology exists today to make clothing from sustainable resources without pollution. The question is whether we can scale it fast enough to make a dent. And that's a manufacturing challenge, not a scientific one. Luna: Well, I'm rooting for the wood-chip t-shirt.