Page 72 - November-December-2017

72

Bolt Threads Engineered Silk™ fibres. The real
spiders’ silk was studied to understand the
relationship between the spiders’ DNA and the
characteristics of the fibres they make. The
technology allows to make those proteins without
using spiders. Looking at the DNA of spiders, the
company then creates sequences engineered for
product performance. The whole process is process include Acrylic, Rayon, Aramid, and performance and sustainability. It is possible to get
informed by the understanding of how spiders Spandex. The recipe for Engineered SilkTM is still much better performance from textiles and garments
make silks. The company is already actually being refined. As the technology is scaled up, the which are both softer and longer-lasting, and offer
producing the Engineered Silk™ fibres at company commits to being completely transparent better protection from a variety of elements.
commercial scale, this is being done at a cost about the process used to make the fibres. All of the Unfortunately, it is no secret that the textile industry is
that makes it viable for widespread use in production is currently in the United States and the among the dirtiest industries on the planet:
consumer products such as apparel. Looked plan is to keep it there. Making the products in the According to the World Bank, 20% of water pollution
under a microscope, Engineered Silk™ fibres US, using domestically grown crops and globally results from textile processing. Compare this
have the exact same chemistry as naturally manufacturing resources, enables the company to to polyesters which are made from petroleum.
occurring animal silks from spiders or silk worms. create jobs and also eliminate some of the Currently, more than 60% of textiles are made of
environmental impact of transportation. polyester and other petroleum-derived fibres. The
main input in the fibre-making process is sugar from
The Engineered Silk™ fibres are made of plants that are grown, harvested and replanted.
protein—they contain no DNA and no genetically Furthermore, the company is driven to produce
modified organisms. The process by which the fibres fabrics that can meet consumers’ needs while
are made involves many steps. One step utilizes minimizing impacts on the environment. However, the
genetically engineered yeast. This step takes place in life cycle analysis of the product is not yet reported.
a closed loop process in a sterile facility, at the end of
which the yeast is destroyed by heat. This is the Natural silk is a wonderful, versatile fabric. It’s soft
same process that is used to make most of the and breathable and remarkably warm. Woven AD
cheese, along with insulin and many other drugs. The silk—think pyjamas and silky dresses—is very
technology has been in use for decades: It was different from a silk knit, which was the original
approved for making insulin and vaccines in the technical base layer. Silk has fallen out of favour for
1980s and has been used in cheese-making since everyday wear because it is not an easy-care fabric.
1990. There are concerns about GMO crops and Fabrics from Engineered SilkTM claim to combine the
GMOs in food. It’s important to thoroughly examine best qualities of silk, but will look and feel quite
these technologies and balance reasonable different from traditional silk, and also be easier to
Production concerns with the potential for doing good. wash and wear.
The primary ingredients are sugar, water, salts
and yeast. In summary, yeast produces silk The process used to modify yeast has been in It is pertinent to mention that creating synthetic silk is
protein in a liquid form during fermentation. After widespread use for decades, and the company claim not the only option. For example, Kraig Labs invented
some processing, the liquid silk protein can be that they are confident that it poses no harm. a new technology and acquired the exclusive right to
turned into fibre through wet spinning. Wet Currently, all large fermentation facilities in the US use the patented genetic sequences for numerous
spinning is required for polymers that require use corn sugar from genetically modified corn, so fundamental spider silk proteins. The company
dissolving in a solvent to be spun. It is named wet that’s what Bolt Threads are using. The company employed its proprietary genetic engineering spider
Spiders produce silk fibres with remarkable Bolt Threads claims to develop technology to spinning because the fibres are extruded directly states that in the future, large-scale fermentation can be silk technology to an organism which is already one
done with non-food crops known as cellulosic feedstocks.
of the most efficient commercial producers of silk:
properties including high tensile strength, elasticity, replicate this amazing process sustainably at large into a liquid bath. Being extruded into a liquid The domesticated silkworm. This is a developing
durability and softness. Researchers have gone scale. Bolt Threads is a venture backed, idea driven provides a greater drag force on the filament than Need of the new material area and we will keep our readers abreast of the
through a menagerie of host organisms searching company, led by world-class scientific and those extruded directly into air, therefore the Bolt Threads identifies two key reasons are future developments.
for the secret to spider silk production. They’ve tried engineering talent, as well as experienced executives speeds at which this occurs is reduced from that
using goats, modified silkworms, and from the technology and apparel industries. Bolt of melt and dry spinning. Once evaporated these
microorganisms such as Salmonella and E. coli. And Threads is a team of eighty people with robust fibres then have to be drawn or stretched in order
some of them did make silk. But no one ever technology and It all started back when the to orient the polymers to give the fibre its strength.
achieved the holy grail of spider silk fibres: making co-founders Dan, David, and Ethan met in 2009. Wet spinning is based on precipitation, where a
sufficient quantities at a price reasonable enough to polymer is drawn through a spinneret into a
sell commercially. There are no spiders involved at all in the making of non-solvent. The prepared spinning dope is
extruded into the non-solvent and precipitation or
coagulation occurs. Fibres spun using this

November/December 2017