The Genesis of Sustainable Fibres

In 1987 Courtaulds UK started up the world’s first solvent-spun cellulose process to supply  25 tonnes/week  of  a new rayon fibre  with impeccable environmental credentials .  Process development had started in Courtaulds Coventry Research laboratories in 1979 under the direction of Patrick White[i]  and had remained secret under the “Genesis” codename until 1986.  In June that year the Courtaulds Fibres Viscose Division and Courtaulds Research joined forces to reveal, without spelling it out as such,  a long-range strategy to replace the chemically complex viscose route with a simple, pollution-free, physical cellulose dissolution route.  Here  cellulose in the form of wood-pulp would simply be dissolved without change and reprecipitated as a “lyocell” fibre.  Stratford-on-Avon was the chosen venue for the press conference and because nonwovens were then looking to be the best launch market, several nonwoven reporters[ii]  were present who duly wrote articles on the new fibre[iii].

Tencel News: 600 jobs to go at Lenzing Austria (2013)

In the light of the ongoing difficult market situation, Lenzing has decided to proactively implement a massive, far-reaching cost optimization program. The initiative will enable cost savings of EUR 120 mn p.a. until 2015 as a means of safeguarding Lenzing’s cost leadership on the global market for man-made cellulose fibers. In this way Lenzing is responding to the current difficult market environment, which has led to increasingly fierce price competition.

“The difficult market situation will continue in 2014 and possibly well into 2015. We will resolutely counteract this unfavorable situation and adjust our cost structures to the new circumstances as quickly as possible”, says Peter Untersperger, Chief Executive Officer of Lenzing AG. “Our aim must not only be to expand our quality leadership and innovative strength on a sustainable basis, but also to regain the cost leadership in our industry. We continue to see attractive growth potential for our products, but we are already preparing ourselves today as optimally as possible for the increasingly tough competition. Cost discipline and cash generation will be our targets over the coming years.”

In particular, the sales and marketing organization will be strengthened as part of the current reorganization project. The entire organization will sharpen its focus to more strongly orient its activities to the important fiber markets of Asia and Turkey. Sales efforts in China especially will be expanded on the basis of additional technical experts and market development capabilities.

Lenzing will continue to invest, particularly in developing TENCEL® for high quality textile applications and sustainable nonwoven applications. Demand for Lenzing Modal® remains strong.

The expanded cost optimization program “excelLENZ 2.0” is a further, comprehensive step to sustainably safeguard earnings and future investment projects. It complements the initial “excelLENZ” cost-saving program which has been underway since the beginning of the year as well as the organizational restructuring of the Group. Improvement potential for all cost modules encompassing all operating units has been defined over the past weeks. The measures to be implemented on this basis will not only result in savings in material costs but also massive reductions in operating expenses and overhead, extensive increases in operating efficiency as well as a reduction in the total number of employees. All global sites will be affected. The staff at the Group’s largest production site in Lenzing, Upper Austria will likely be downsized by up to 15% from the current level of about 2,600 employees (including retiring employees and unfilled vacancies). On balance, a total of up to 600 jobs will be cut or vacant positions not filled.

The individual measures will be quickly carried out in the coming months, and thus already partially impact earnings in 2014. Lenzing expects one-off expenses related to the implementation of the “excelLENZ 2.0” drive in the mid double-digit euro range.

Source: Lenzing PR

75 Years of Lenzing Fibres (2013)

The Lenzing website now provides a version of Tencel development story containing the following paragraphs:

On the Cover:
Lenzing succeeded in helping the viscose technology which is already 100 years old to reach new heights. At the same time Lenzing developed a completely new technology, Tencel(r), which will also shape the cellulose fibre industry in the coming 100 years.

Inside:
As of the 1970s the global cellulose fiber industry began searching for alternative production processes for viscose fibers. The most successful results were attained by researchers at the Dutch Akzo Group. After years of research work, its subsidiary American ENKA managed to dissolve pulp in the organic solvent N-methylmorpholine oxide, in short NMMO, and to produce fibers from this solvent. Akzo-ENKA operated a pilot plant using this process. The company patented its know-how but terminated any further development work.

Later these fibers were given the generic name “lyocell“.


Lenzing also carried out research on alternatives and ultimately came across the NMMO solvent process. After Lenzing had successfully manufactured fibers on a small scale using this technology, it licensed the know-how from Akzo in the year 1987.

Lenzing’s competitor Courtaulds also acquired an Akzo license.

In 1990, Lenzing started on construction on a semi-commercial pilot plant.

No company with the exception of Lenzing has decades of experience with the technology for TENCEL®, the fiber of the 21st century. TENCEL® remains the research and development priority of Lenzing. It is essential to further discover, spread and commercialize the extensive potential applications of the TENCEL® technology.

Here's the link to the relevant pages.  

While Lenzing continue to gloss over the Courtaulds contribution to Tencel development*, the new history is commendably candid about the Third Reich origins of their viscose operation:

Tencel Sales to Nonwovens Increase (2013)

The following paragraphs are extracted from Lenzing's 2nd quarterly report for 2013.  

The global nonwovens fiber market developed robustly in the first half of 2013 against the backdrop of very good volume demand. However, the declining textile fiber selling prices, also in the nonwovens sector, also led to some price pressure.

Lenzing set new sales priorities in its nonwovens business in the first half-year, for example in Europe, where demand developed well. On balance, shipment volumes in the first half of 2013 climbed to about 131,000 tons (H1 2012: 115,000 tons). There was a significant volume increase for TENCEL® of approximately 5,000 tons to close to 23,000 tons.

Average fiber selling prices for Lenzing nonwoven fibers remained stable in the first half-year at EUR 1.75 per kilogram, but were below the comparable level in 2012 (EUR 1.84/kg) in line with the general price trend. As expected, the price decrease was not as pronounced as in the textile segment.

Demand for TENCEL® used in textile applications could also be maintained at the same high level by implementing corresponding marketing campaigns. These measures related to all types of TENCEL® fibers, serving as the basis for full capacity utilization at the TENCEL® production plants. In spite of the disruption in production at the TENCEL® factory in Heiligenkreuz, total volume reached a level of 43,000 tons in the first six months of this year, slightly above the prior-year figure of about 42,000 tons. TENCEL® selling prices developed stably throughout the entire first half of 2013, featuring price premiums of about 50% vis-à-vis viscose, but significantly below the premiums attained in the first half-year 2012. 

Lenzing's full quarterly report is now available for download here.

Presentation slides are also available here

Introducing Tencel

Tencel* is a brand of fibre made by dissolving wood cellulose from tree-farms in an amine oxide solvent and spinning the resulting dope into fibres which are chemically identical to cotton and generically known as "lyocell".  

It was developed in Courtaulds Research in Coventry UK in the 1980's as a non-polluting route to the fibres which were expected to become increasingly important as the land used to grow cotton was switched to food production and the cheap oil for synthetic fibres ran out. 

The 1990's scale-up to multi-factory production probably occurred a decade too soon, Courtaulds being unable to sustain the investment when the market for the fibre took longer to develop than the Stock Market expected.  

Akzo Nobel bought Courtaulds in 1998 forming Acordis** Fibres which they later sold to Private Equity in 1999 (CVC Partners).  When the EU forbade CVC's attempt also to buy the Austrian cellulosics company Lenzing (2001), they broke up Acordis and regained their investment by selling Tencel Ltd to Lenzing (2004).

This blog is compiling a detailed history of the development from the publications of those years and the recollections of those involved by adding them as Posts and in Year folders. 

Click on the other Page Tabs above or the Year folders on the right for more information.  It has not been possible to maintain strict date order, but tidying up is now in progress, and a more chronologically accurate flow of posts will eventually emerge.

Links to basic information about Tencel follow and these contain several of the articles written to introduce Tencel over 20 years ago.  Hopefully more will be added as they come to light so check back occasionally.

"The Genesis of Sustainable Fibres" is a recent article written for the 25th anniversary of Tencel's commercial production in Grimbsy UK now published in Sustainable Nonwovens magazine with a link to this blog.

Tencel from Birth to Mainstream was written by Pat White, Tencel's Technical Director and presented at TITK 2004 at the time of the Lenzing takeover.

"The environmental aspects of solvent-spun cellulose production and use", was given at the Cellulose 91, Cellucon Conference, New Orleans, and later reprinted in Nonwovens Industry magazine.

All you need to know about Tencel is a comprehensive 2 page article from Textile Horizons written by Stan Davies based on an interview with Barrie March and Alan Jones in 1988.

The Early Tencel History was extracted from Woodhead Publishing's "Regenerated Cellulose Fibres"

A more recent and scholarly review of Tencel history has been written by Geoffrey Owen and appears at:  http://www.tencel-lyocell.com/2013/01/geoffrey-owens-tencel-lyocell-history.html

An excellent 2010 Life Cycle Assessment of Tencel and other cellulosic fibres is provided by the Copernicus Institute on the Lenzing website.

"Solvent Spun Fibre: a new member of the cellulose fibre family" by David Cole and Alan Jones given at the 1989 Dornbirn Conference and reprinted in Lenzinger Berichte in 1990 is also on the Lenzing website.

* "tencel" was originally chosen as the generic name for solvent-spun rayon and used as such until the US FTC decided it was too closely associated with Courtaulds PLC to be acceptable.  Lyocell then became the generic name and Tencel became the brand name for Courtaulds lyocell fibre and the name of the Courtaulds Division producing it. 

Since 2004, "Tencel" has been a Lenzing AG registered Trade Mark. 

** Click here to see why the Courtaulds name could not continue to be used.

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