Lenzing has made a rapid and significant breakthrough with its TencelWeb project to process Tencel in solution form directly into nonwovens via the meltblowing route.

The successful development of this technology could have a huge impact on the industry in the longer term, given Tencel’s superior environmental credentials – and the commitment of leading corporations such as Procter & Gamble to gradually switch to 100% renewable raw materials.

Speaking at yesterday’s Nonwovens Network UK conference in Bradford, West Yorkshire, new business and innovation director for Lenzing Fibers, Robert Smith, said the plan was now to scale-up the existing pilot plant in Austria on which the company has been refining the process, in a joint development project with forest products industry leader Weyerhauser, since 2009.