In Tennessee, Eastman Chemical is expanding its textile business from focusing on acetate tow to other polymers and cellulose esters. Eastman developed an environment friendly textiles platform based on cellulose esters and launched its Naia brand of textiles which is 60% bio-based and uses “extremely clean chemistry”, Crawford told ICIS. The Naia brand of textiles is based on wood pulp from sustainably grown forests.
“Textiles is an area in need of material innovation – it’s a value-rich target for harnessing molecular design across the value chain,” Steve Crawford, chief technology officer of Eastman, told ICIS at the company’s Innovation Day in New York. Eastman had over 10% growth in 2017 in its textiles business within the fibers segment, and is expected to have continued growth in the area for 2018.