H&M wants to make clothes from carbon dioxide using this startup’s technology

The fashion industry knows it has a waste problem. Approximately one garbage truck disposes of textiles every second. At the same time, this industry generates more carbon pollution than international flights and sea shipping combined.

Some companies are experimenting with new ways to recycle textile waste, while others are developing new materials that don’t require fossil fuels. One startup, Ruby, “essentially takes the machinery of extracellular biology” to manufacture the building blocks of lyocell and viscose, co-founder and CEO Nika Mashof told TechCrunch. The startup’s technology will allow any company using cellulose to build products from captured carbon dioxide.

Ruby recently raised $7.5 million to build a pilot scale for its cellulose production system, which is designed to produce tens of tons of the material using carbon dioxide.₂ As its main component. The round was led by AP Ventures and FH One Investments, with participation from CMPC Ventures, H&M Group, Talis Capital, and Understorey Ventures, Robbie exclusively told TechCrunch.

Mashof told TechCrunch that the startup has reserved more than $60 million in non-binding offtake agreements with two partners. The company has tested the material with 15 pilot partners, including H&M, Patagonia and Walmart.

To make cellulose for lyocell or viscose, Ruby uses enzymes. This differs from other startups, which may use engineered bacteria within a fermenter or chemical catalysts to convert carbon dioxide into the compound. Today, most cellulose comes from trees, including plantations and pristine rainforests.

“These textile and raw material supply chains are very long,” Mashof said. “Here in the United States, we have an interest in being able to produce textile-quality cellulose pulp, where that doesn’t exist today.”

The idea to use enzymes came when Mashhouf, who was searching for new materials, teamed up with her twin sister Laila, who was studying medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We looked at every technology out there, but they kept coming back to enzymes,” she said.

The enzyme industry is huge, she said. It is used to make high fructose corn syrup and in wastewater treatment. “The capacity already exists and can be very low cost.”

Ruby uses a “series” of enzymes to process carbon dioxide waste. The company used artificial intelligence and machine learning methods to enhance the enzymes’ efficacy and stability.

Mashhouf said that the enzymes are currently floating in a water solution, and with the addition of carbon dioxide, white cellulose will appear inside the reactor within a few minutes. The reactors fit into modules the size of a shipping container. Eventually, Ruby plans to change its process to allow for continuous production.

While the startup is targeting clothing companies as its first customers, it hopes to eventually provide cellulose to any industry that uses it. “It’s really a platform,” Moshoff said. “We see it as a platform to manufacture all chemicals and materials that are important in the economy in a low-cost way.”