Move over, cotton and hemp
Byproducts from two crops could find themselves in the mix when it comes to clothing production.
Research out of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden indicates cellulose fibers, which come from plants like cotton and hemp to make shirts, jeans, and other clothing items, can also be made from wheat straw and oat husks.
Diana Bernin, an associate professor in the university’s department of chemistry and chemical engineering, helped develop dissolving pulp, which can be used to make the fibers necessary for clothing.
“You dissolve it first and then you coagulate it, so it gets solid,” Bernin told Farms.com. “Imagine you have cellulose dissolved and then you pour it into something which it doesn’t like to be dissolved in. Then you can pull out the textile fibers.”
Diana Bernin
From a chemistry perspective, the cellulose fibers that come from wheat and oats is the exact same molecule as the ones coming from cotton, she added.
Dissolving pulp is created through a process called soda pulping.
In soda pulping, the raw material is boiled for about an hour in water and lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, an ingredient found in soap, or oven cleaners.
“It kind of opens the structure of the plant,” Bernin said. “The liquid turns brown because the lignin and other molecules actually go into the liquid, and then the cellulose is left because it’s not soluble in this solution. So, you’re left with a filter cake basically, and when you filter it you have the solid material, which is mainly cellulose, and then you have all other material you don’t want.”
In terms of the strength of the fibers from the wheat and oats, that is still being tested.
Like many clothing items, wheat and oats fibers would be used alongside other materials.
“When you spin the fibers, you can easily add another one to make it stronger,” Bernin said. “It behaves very much like cotton.”
To continue the research, Bernin and her team need more wheat and oats.
And she’s confident other crop materials can be used for textile manufacturing.
“I think making dissolving pulp from other agricultural waste products could help increase their value a lot,” she said.
But that requires working with companies and local farmers, who want more proof the idea is viable.
“I have been chasing a farmer to talk to him and get the wheat straw,” she said. “But he made it quite clear he won’t dig into the soil if it doesn’t result in a positive return.”