Renewcell has dispatched the first shipment of Circulose dissolving pulp produced at its Renewcell 1 plant in Sundsvall, Sweden to a customer. This sale is the latest step in the ramp-up of Renewcell 1 to its initial capacity of 60,000 tons per year.

Renewcell produced its first fibre material employing technology including the ADuro textile fibre preparation system from Andritz at its new site in Sundsvall, Sweden. The process used produces a pure dissolving pulp from 100% textile waste which can subsequently be transformed into new garments for the circular clothing industry.

Andritz installed a complete textile fiber preparation system based on shredding and separation technology at the Sundsvall plant. The line’s shredders form the centerpiece of the system and transform used textiles in a single step, to enable a throughput of up to 60,000 tons of textile waste per year. In the subsequent separation stages, impurities such as buttons and zippers are removed from the shredded textiles.

Since 2016, the two companies have been working together on the development of Renewcell’s textile recycling process at its test plant in Kristinehamn, Sweden, and now also on its first commercial plant in Sundsvall.

Renewcell was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2012 and specializes in recycling textiles with the vision of making textiles and nonwovens circular. Its recycling technology transforms used cotton and other cellulose fibres into a new raw material called Circulose pulp. The pulp will be primarily used to produce high-quality biodegradable viscose or lyocell textile fibres for the fashion industry.