H&M recognizes new sustainable nylon process for a "zero-emissions" world

NYU Tandon School of Engineering Assistant Professor Miguel Modestino recently has discovered a game changer for the textile nylon. Used widely in the fashion industry, Modestino is proposing a method that eliminates using oil in the equation, which can ultimately help shift towards an overall more sustainable fashion and garment industry.

Modestino, along with his co-researcher, Sophia Haussener of the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (EPFL), have together received a 2017 Global Change Award from the H&M Foundation due to this proposal. The award came from H&M’s non-profit arm for the retail giant, the H&M Foundation. Known also for trying to become more sustainable, the H&M award is worth approximately 267,000 dollars. The Global Change Challenge for the award had approximately 3,000 applicants this year. As the initiative aims to support innovators of sustainable change in the fashion world, the H&M Foundation works to award that. The awards for this year’s challenge were presented this month in Stockholm, Sweden.

H&M Foundation awards NYU Professor for nylon process

The researchers chose nylon due to its popularity in the garment industry. Because of the large market for nylon, estimated at more than six million tons per year, the researchers estimated a value of over 20 billion dollars. The process they designed uses photovoltaic arrays that generate electricity from the sun. Then, the electricity is used to drive the electrochemical reduction of acrylonitrile to adiponitrile and hydrogen, resulting in a synthesization. This ultimately results in hexanediamine, which is one of the existing precursors to nylon. The new process allows for a carbon capture, in order to result in less pollution for the world.

"It is gratifying to contribute toward a zero-emissions world," Modestino said in a statement. "Once this process is tested and scaled up, there is the potential to expand the concept to other segments of the chemical industry, including the synthesis of substances like aluminum and chlorine." Ultimately, this process can result in a more sustainable world and less of a negative impact from the fashion industry.

"Miguel Modestino takes an approach that we hope to see in every bit of research done at NYU Tandon: to create technology that can be used for the benefit of humankind," Dean Katepalli Sreenivasan said in a statement. "We are proud that the H&M Foundation recognizes the value of his hard work and vision."

Photo: PRNewsFoto/NYU Tandon School of Engineering / H&M