Agricultural waste could be the fabric of the future

Cellulose-based textiles offer a promising path to a more sustainable fashion industry. While most of these textiles are currently made from wood, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have discovered that agricultural waste—like wheat and oat byproducts—could be an alternative. This method is not only more eco-friendly but also requires fewer chemicals compared to traditional forest-based cellulose production, all while adding value to agricultural waste.

The environmental impact of cotton is hard to ignore. It’s water-intensive and contributes significantly to climate change. This has pushed the search for more sustainable raw materials for textile production, with a shift toward cellulose-based fabrics. So far, efforts have largely focused on wood, but recent research has explored a promising new avenue: agricultural waste, a resource abundant in Sweden.

The team behind the study tested materials such as oat husks, wheat straw, potato pulp, and sugar beet pulp. Of these, oat husks and wheat straw proved the most effective for creating dissolving pulp, the essential component for textile manufacturing.

“We've developed a method in this study to create textile pulp from agricultural waste,” says Diana Bernin, Assistant Professor at Chalmers and senior researcher on the project. “This is a significant step toward replacing unsustainable cotton and wood with waste materials—materials that are currently underutilised but have enormous potential to support a greener textile industry.”

A Cleaner, More Efficient Process

One of the key innovations in this research is the use of soda pulping. In this method, raw materials are boiled in lye, a sustainable process that minimises environmental impact.
“Lye is non-toxic and doesn’t harm the environment,” Bernin explains. “This makes soda pulping a better option for agricultural waste compared to wood, as it requires fewer chemicals and no chipping or debarking. It also makes better economic sense by adding value to leftover crops like oats and wheat.”

Bernin believes that other agricultural byproducts may also be suitable for textile production using this method. In fact, she is part of an international project that has successfully turned grass field press-cake into dissolving pulp using the same technique.

Additionally, the team is already exploring the next step: converting these pulp materials into textile fibres, with wheat pulp and grass press-cake showing great promise.

Harnessing Existing Industries for the Future

Looking ahead, Bernin envisions leveraging the pulp-and-paper industry, which already has the necessary infrastructure, to produce dissolving pulp from agricultural waste.
“If we can adapt existing industry processes rather than building entirely new production facilities, we can make this a practical, scalable solution much more quickly,” she notes.
Joanna Wojtasz, the lead author of the study and former postdoc at Chalmers (now a researcher at innovation company Tree To Textile), adds, “This research shows just how much potential agricultural waste holds. We shouldn’t overlook the possibility of using these cellulose streams to revolutionize the future of fashion.”
In sum, agricultural waste might soon be transformed into the fabric of tomorrow—sustainable, efficient, and abundant.