Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Cel­lu­lose Fibres 2022

The suc­cess story of cel­lu­lose fibres con­tin­ues — plastic bans drive innovation 

Cel­lu­lose fibres are among the win­ners of the European ​‘Single-Use Plastics Dir­ect­ive (SUPD)’, which has been in effect since July 2021 and entails plastic bans for a vari­ety of single-use products. Cel­lu­lose is the main com­pon­ent of plant cell walls and a nat­ur­al poly­mer. As a res­ult, dis­pos­able products made of cel­lu­lose and cel­lu­lose fibres are not labelled as plastic and are expli­citly excluded from the reg­u­la­tion. The suc­cess story of cel­lu­lose fibres will thus con­tin­ue at a rap­id pace with new devel­op­ments and applications.

Build­ing on the suc­cess of this year’s con­fer­ence with 200 par­ti­cipants, the Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Cel­lu­lose Fibres 2022 will again cov­er the entire value chain, from ligno­cel­lu­lose, chem­ic­al pulp, cel­lu­lose fibres such as ray­on, vis­cose, mod­al or lyo­cell and new devel­op­ments to a wide range of applic­a­tions: Tex­tiles of all kinds, non­wovens such as wet wipes and new areas such as com­pos­ites or nano­cel­lu­lose in the food industry. All these sec­tors have gained con­sid­er­able momentum in recent years.

Cel­lu­lose fibres have been a suc­cess story with­in the tex­tile mar­ket with a com­pound annu­al growth rate (CAGR) between 5 and 10 % over the last ten years and sim­il­ar growth rates are expec­ted in the com­ing dec­ade. This makes cel­lu­losic fibres the fast­est grow­ing fibre group in the tex­tile industry and also the largest invest­ment sec­tor in the glob­al bioeconomy. The chal­lenge now is to achieve a bal­ance between the ongo­ing capa­city expan­sion and the grow­ing demand, to avoid over­ca­pa­city while still meet­ing rising demand from the major brands. These high growth rates are driv­en by the increased demand for nat­ur­al fibres (and bot­tle­necks in cot­ton pro­duc­tion), the micro­plastic issues, and bans on plastics in dis­pos­able applic­a­tions. All three factors will con­tin­ue to play an import­ant role in the devel­op­ment of the sec­tor in the future.

Focus of the conference

• What is the impact of plastic bans on single-use products?
• The avoid­ance of micro­plastics and the trans­form­a­tion from fossil to renew­able raw materials?
• What are the biggest chal­lenges in devel­op­ing new value chains and grow­ing mar­ket demand?
• Which altern­at­ive raw mater­i­als for cel­lu­lose fibres are suit­able and available?
• What are the latest tech­no­logy and mar­ket trends?
• What are the future mar­ket dynam­ics? Who is act­ive and inter­ested in the cel­lu­lose fibre sector?
• What eco­sys­tems and part­ner­ships are needed to pro­mote innov­a­tion in line with new mar­ket requirements?
• How will the polit­ic­al envir­on­ment devel­op in the future?
• How can the sus­tain­ab­il­ity of cel­lu­lose fibre pro­duc­tion be fur­ther improved?

Event Loc­a­tion

Mater­nush­aus
Kar­din­al-Frings-Str. 1 – 3
50668 Köln