Bioengineering textiles across scales for a sustainable circular economy

Abstract

Challenges and opportunities•The development of bio-based, recyclable fibers that replicate the materials properties of commercial textile fibers.•The timely degradation of bioengineered fibers with advanced properties (e.g., elasticity, wicking) within natural soil and marine environments.•A circular economy that transforms waste streams into engineered, biodegradable fibers for sustainable textiles. Current textile production and processing practices provide materials with desirable performance properties, such as stretch and moisture management, but these processes are leading contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, and toxic wastewater. Fortunately, green alternatives to current textile fibers that support a transition to a sustainable, circular materials economy are within reach. Bioengineering of fibers at the nano-, micro-, and macroscale provides several avenues to improve both the environmental impacts and technical performance of textile materials. Herein, we provide an overview of recent efforts to bioengineer fibers and textiles from the biopolymer components to biofabrication schemes. These include the genetic engineering of microorganisms for biofabrication, green chemistry processing of raw materials, and green manufacturing techniques. This overview informs a discussion on the future outlook of sustainable biotextile production, with a focus on utilization of waste streams to both improve the circularity and commercial viability of the processes. Current textile production and processing practices provide materials with desirable performance properties, such as stretch and moisture management, but these processes are leading contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, and toxic wastewater. Fortunately, green alternatives to current textile fibers that support a transition to a sustainable, circular materials economy are within reach. Bioengineering of fibers at the nano-, micro-, and macroscale provides several avenues to improve both the environmental impacts and technical performance of textile materials. Herein, we provide an overview of recent efforts to bioengineer fibers and textiles from the biopolymer components to biofabrication schemes. These include the genetic engineering of microorganisms for biofabrication, green chemistry processing of raw materials, and green manufacturing techniques. This overview informs a discussion on the future outlook of sustainable biotextile production, with a focus on utilization of waste streams to both improve the circularity and commercial viability of the processes. IntroductionBiofabrication of materials will play a key role in facilitating the transition from an environmentally destructive linear economy to a cradle-to-cradle circular economy.1World Economic ForumTowards the circular economy: accelerating the scale-up across global supply chains.2014http://wef.ch/1rvDRDLGoogle Scholar,2Ellen MacArthur FoundationTowards the circular economy: economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition.2012https://www.greengrowthknowledge.org/research/towards-circular-economy-economic-and-business-rationale-accelerated-transitionGoogle Scholar A circular economy seeks to emulate nature’s cycling, using ecologically benign processes to close and minimize material and energy loops, with the central premise that infinitely reusing our materials can make industrialization compatible with sustainable development and climate stability. For example, the significant environmental impacts of plastic can be mitigated by adopting circular economy approaches, including closed-loop chemical recycling of synthetic polymers to monomers and programmed biodegradation.3Fagnani D.E. Tami J.L. Copley G. Clemons M.N. Getzler Y.D.Y.L. McNeil A.J. 100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: redefining Sustainable Polymers.ACS Macro Lett. 2021; 10: 41-53Crossref Scopus (78) Google Scholar,4Vogt B.D. Stokes K.K. Kumar S.K. Why is recycling of postconsumer plastics so challenging?.ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2021; 3: 4325-4346Crossref Scopus (34) Google Scholar New polymeric materials with appropriate mechanical properties that can be completely recycled back to monomer, repurposed for new uses, or readily degraded in the environment are currently being developed.5Christensen P.R. Scheuermann A.M. Loeffler K.E. Helms B.A. Closed-loop recycling of plastics enabled by dynamic covalent diketoenamine bonds.Nat. 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To form synthetic textile fibers, such as nylon or elastane, a range of nonrenewable and non-recyclable resources and petrochemicals are used. Concurrently, the production of natural fibers, such as cotton, and degradable polymer fibers, such as polylactic acid, produced from corn-derived ethanol, rely on non-sustainable industrial agricultural practices.9Altieri M.A. Ecological impacts of industrial agriculture and the possibilities for truly sustainable farming.Mon. Rev. 1998; 50: 60-71Crossref Google Scholar In addition to the raw fiber production, the tanning, dyeing, and finishing agents used to produce the aesthetic and performance properties of textiles create an overall linear process that is chemical, water, and energy intensive.10Muthu S.S. Assessing the Environmental Impact of Textiles and the Clothing Supply Chain. Second Edition. Woodhead Publishing, 2020Google Scholar For example, the current textile industry contributes to 10% of global carbon emissions11Quantis Measuring fashioninsights from the environmental impact of the global apparel and footwear industries.2018https://quantis-intl.com/report/measuring-fashion-report/Google Scholar and 20% of global waste water.12World BankThe Bangladesh responsible sourcing initiative: a new model for green growth.2018https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/614901468768707543/The-Bangladesh-Responsible-Sourcing-Initiative-A-new-model-for-green-growthGoogle Scholar Critically, the production of some synthetic fibers results in the formation of microplastics and it is estimated that 35% of marine microplastic pollution is derived from the textile industry.13Institution of Mechanical EngineersEngineering out fashion waste.2018https://www.imeche.org/policy-and-press/reports/detail/engineering-out-fashion-wasteGoogle Scholar This microplastic pollution is particularly harmful, as microplastics have been shown to disrupt endocrine signaling and accumulate throughout the food web and have been found in intestinal tracts of marine mammals and humans, and recently, in human placentas.14Reineke J.J. 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Addressing the climate impacts of the textile industry would help achieve several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including access to clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and climate action (SDG 13).Despite the large manufacturing impacts of textiles, the dominant cradle-to-grave linear economy sends the equivalent of a truckload of clothing to a landfill every second,15https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/a-new-textiles-economy-redesigning-fashions-futureDate: 2015Google Scholar leaching toxic dyes, plasticizers, and finishing agents into groundwater and releasing potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In contrast, a circular economy is characterized by carbon efficiency, elimination of dependence on fossil feedstocks, and integration of industrial production with end-of-life reintegration of materials through complete recycling or natural biodegradation (Figure 1). As a part of this process, healthy soil is produced and acts as an important climate regulator,21Sanderman J. Hengl T. Fiske G.J. Soil carbon debt of 12,000 years of human land use.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2017; 114: 9575-9580Crossref PubMed Scopus (417) Google Scholar with the potential to mitigate 23.8 Gt of CO2-equivalent per year globally.22Bossio D.A. Cook-Patton S.C. Ellis P.W. Fargione J. Sanderman J. Smith P. Wood S. Zomer R.J. von Unger M. Emmer I.M. Griscom B.W. The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions.Nat Sustain. 2020; 3: 391-398Crossref Scopus (182) Google ScholarTherefore, there is a pressing need to develop fabrication processes that create high-performance textiles with the requisite strength, ductility, and moisture management but that are biodegradable by and non-toxic to microorganisms in the environment. Synthetic biology and biofabrication have the potential to address this challenge through custom-designed organisms and bioinspired processes and can directly transform industrial side streams and byproducts into high-value materials with broad applications. For example, collagen fibers can be produced in genetically modified microbes to biofabricate leather and bio-utilization of rapidly renewable biopolymers, such as fungal mycelium, can create alternative leathers and fabrics.23Kim D.-S. Kim Y.-W. Kim K.-J. Shin H.-J. Research trend and product development potential of fungal mycelium-based composite materials.ksbbj. 2017; 32: 174-178Crossref Google Scholar,24Forgacs, G., Marga, F., and Jakab, K. (2013). Engineered leather and methods of manufacture thereof. US patent US 2013/0255003 A1, filed March 28, 2013, and published, October 3, 2013.Google Scholar Moreover, various biofabrication technologies, including 3D printing and green electrospinning,25Mosher C.Z. Brudnicki P.A.P. 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Importantly, the climate change mitigation potential of biofabrication processes and biomaterial products is estimated at 1–2.5 billion tons of CO2-equivalent per year by 2030.26OECDReport on industrial biotechnology and climate change: opportunities and challenges.2011https://www.oecd.org/sti/emerging-tech/reportonindustrialbiotechnologyandclimatechangeopportunitiesandchallenges.htmGoogle Scholar Greater climate change offsets may be achieved if bioengineering is used to disrupt conventional textile manufacturing, which is currently expected to constitute 25% of the global carbon budget by 2050.15https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/publications/a-new-textiles-economy-redesigning-fashions-futureDate: 2015Google Scholar The potential of biofabrication to engineer a range of materials, coupled with the enormous environmental impact of conventional textile manufacturing, has propelled research into more sustainable, bio-based textiles. Here, we present nano-, micro-, and macroscale bioengineering strategies for the sustainable production of textile fibers with broad application across sectors, including fashion, biomedical, and industrial applications, with potential to accelerate a paradigm shift to a circular materials economy.Bioengineering at the nanoscale: Protein engineering of fiber biopolymersProtein engineering offers the ability to produce materials with desired aesthetic and functional performance properties through molecular biomimicry. The range of colors, stretch, tensile strength, and moisture management properties society increasingly demands from textiles can all be found in biodiverse organisms in nature, without the environmental impact of toxic dyes, finishing agents, and petrochemical feedstocks. Engineering of protein building blocks allows for the strategic biomimicry of these desired aesthetic and performance properties in biotextiles. For example, introduction of binding domains on microbially expressed recombinant proteins facilitates their self-assembly into hybrid biomaterials, whereas inclusion of enzymatic cross-linking sites in such proteins offers a knob to tailor material properties at the molecular level with macroscale impact.Advances in DNA synthesis and synthetic biology have enabled the bottom-up design of biomaterials via DNA-encoded functionality (Figure 2).27Way J.C. Collins J.J. Keasling J.D. Silver P.A. Integrating biological redesign: where synthetic biology came from and where it needs to go.Cell. 2014; 157: 151-161Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (171) Google Scholar,28Qian Z.G. Pan F. Xia X.X. Synthetic biology for protein-based materials.Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2020; 65: 197-204Crossref PubMed Scopus (20) Google Scholar Although there is a direct connection from DNA sequence to protein sequence, the tools of synthetic biology enable broader metabolic engineering efforts to genetically encode polysaccharide and polyester materials as well.29Yadav V. Paniliatis B.J. Shi H. Lee K. Cebe P. Kaplan D.L. Novel in vivo-degradable cellulose-chitin copolymer from metabolically engineered Gluconacetobacter xylinus.Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2010; 76: 6257-6265Crossref PubMed Scopus (77) Google Scholar, 30Fang J. Kawano S. Tajima K. Kondo T. In vivo curdlan/cellulose bionanocomposite synthesis by genetically modified Gluconacetobacter xylinus.Biomacromolecules. 2015; 16: 3154-3160Crossref PubMed Scopus (34) Google Scholar, 31Choi S.Y. Rhie M.N. Kim H.T. Joo J.C. Cho I.J. Son J. Jo S.Y. Sohn Y.J. Baritugo K.A. Pyo J. et al.Metabolic engineering for the synthesis of polyesters: A 100-year journey from polyhydroxyalkanoates to non-natural microbial polyesters.Metab. Eng. 2020; 58: 47-81Crossref PubMed Scopus (81) Google Scholar These functional biopolymers have a host of outstanding properties, including color, elasticity, and biodegradability, that make them well suited for use in circular economy biotextiles. However, the majority of engineered protein products have been designed for biomedical or pharmaceutical applications, largely due to the relatively high cost of production via fermentation. But, these desirable performance properties can be achieved in next-generation biomaterials using only a small percentage of protein biopolymer dopant.32Breslauer D.N. Recombinant protein polymers: a coming wave of personal care ingredients.ACS Biomater. Sci. 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For example, substitution of elastane, which renders clothes unrecyclable when included at just 1%, with a biodegradable protein dopant can instantly improve the environmental impact and circularity of textile materials. Similarly, elimination of traditional dyes and mordants can significantly reduce the waste water generated from dyeing textiles. These positive impacts achieved with low-percentage incorporation of engineered biopolymers can be further compounded if combined with the sustainable production of bulk textile materials from waste streams or via fermentation. This provides an opportunity for research to identify and/or modify organisms for enhanced biopolymer yield when fed with inexpensive nutrients, particularly those obtained from waste streams. The ability to extract these nutrients from agro-industrial waste provides an additional opportunity to close energy and material loops across the most impactful industries in a circular economy.Figure 2Protein engineering approaches for textilesShow full captionProtein engineering at the nanoscale can impart textiles with a range of performance properties. A biological feature is first selected, the protein that imparts this function is identified, and finally the protein is engineered and biosynthesized for incorporation into a textile. Several representative examples are shown schematically.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT)Following the selection of a biomaterial property of interest, the protein biopolymer that confers this property must be identified (Figure 2). For example, the brilliant color of the Discosoma coral comes from a red fluorescent protein (RFP)34Bevis B.J. Glick B.S. Rapidly maturing variants of the Discosoma red fluorescent protein (DsRed).Nat. Biotechnol. 2002; 20: 83-87Crossref PubMed Scopus (491) Google Scholar and the incredible strength of spider dragline fibers comes from the constituent proteins, major ampullate spidroins 1 and 2.35Xia X.X. Qian Z.G. Ki C.S. Park Y.H. Kaplan D.L. Lee S.Y. Native-sized recombinant spider silk protein produced in metabolically engineered Escherichia coli results in a strong fiber.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2010; 107: 14059-14063Crossref PubMed Scopus (399) Google Scholar These protein components can then be designed at the DNA level, to directly reproduce the native protein recombinantly, to generate a fusion protein with the combined function of multiple proteins, or to engineer a synthetic, bioinspired protein. The DNA sequence can be assembled using the techniques of molecular biology, such as recursive directional ligation,36McDaniel J.R. MacKay J.A. Quiroz F.G. Chilkoti A. 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Green chemistry processing using enzymes, such as amylase, cellulase, and pectinase, to name a few, have a long history and broad scope in various textile wet processing operations, such as debasting, desizing, scouring, and degumming cellulosic and protein fibers, as well as in dye decolorization in effluent.53Kabir S.M.M. Koh J. Sustainable textile processing by enzyme applications. IntechOpen, 2021https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/76122Google ScholarEnzyme-catalyzed reactions offer an inherently non-toxic and biocompatible approach to cross-linking biopolymer fibers, without the use of solvent-based chemistry, petrochemical plasticizers, or heavy metal reagents commonly used in textile manufacturing. In addition, the degree of selectivity, site specificity, and predictability of enzymatic cross-linking, enable high levels of control under mild processing conditions. For instance, microbial transglutaminase (TGase) has been used in biomedical applications, including tissue engineering scaffolds, pharmaceuticals, including PEGylation for protein therapeutics, food science, and edible packaging.54Duarte L. Matte C.R. Bizarro C.V. Ayub M.A.Z. Review transglutaminases: part II-industrial applications in food, biotechnology, textiles and leather products.World J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2019; 36: 11Crossref PubMed Scopus (23) Google Scholar, 55Deweid L. Avrutina O. Kolmar H. Microbial transglutaminase for biotechnological and biomedical engineering.Biol. Chem. 2019; 400: 257-274Crossref PubMed Scopus (28) Google Scholar