Activewear apparel brand Lululemon has partnered with biotech company Lanzatech, which uses synthetic biology and artificial intelligence to convert carbon waste into new products, to create a fabric made from captured carbon emissions.

Carbon emissions are one of the primary drivers of climate change, and occur from burning fossil fuel accumulating in the atmosphere if there is not enough biocapacity dedicated to absorb these emissions. It is estimated that the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions.

In order to work towards a Net Zero future LanzaTech has developed a technology which combines synthetic biology and bioinformatics to make climate safe materials and fuels utilising waste carbon. Lululemon and LanzaTech are working with ‘green’ petrochemical manufacturer India Glycols Limited (IGL) and Taiwanese textile producer Far Eastern New Century (FENC) to turn ethanol sourced from waste carbon into polyester, which can be turned into fibre and fabric. The aim is to recycle carbon which would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere as pollution, while also reducing usage of fossil fuels, to create a fabric comparable to virgin polyester.

Lululemon has received already samples of the polyester fabric produced from this process. The material properties of the fabric produced from captured carbon emission are similar to polyester fabric produced from virgin materials.

A limitation for its commercialisation at the moment is that the process and the final cost of the fabric is much more expensive. However, Luluemon and its chemical and biotech partners are already working on a process that could lower the production cost of this type of fabric.

The process used to turn carbon emissions into polyester is similar to a fermentation process used to brew beer: microbes converts carbon monoxide gas into ethanol. The carbon monoxide gas in this particular case it is captured from a steel mill in China. The ethanol is then turned into polyester by IGL and the taiwanese textile manufactures FENC transform it into fibre and fabric.