OrganoClick has received Vinnova funding of approximately SEK 1.3 million for the further development of its fluorocarbon-free (PFAS-free) textile impregnation OrganoTex ® within the R&D project POPFREE. Partners in the POPFREE project include: the outdoor companies Bergans Nordic, Houdini sportswear, RISE, IVL Swedish Environmental Institute, International Chemicals Secretariat – ChemSec and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
The POPFREE project was started three years ago with the aim of developing and researching replacement chemicals for PFAS. OrganoClick’s PFAS-free and biodegradable textile impregnation OrganoTex ® has been partially developed within the framework of previous project steps. The technology that has been developed is based on OrganoClick’s patented and award-winning textile fiber modification technology and is completely free of problematic perfluorinated substances (PFAS), cyclic siloxanes or isocyanates that are commonly used in today’s textile impregnation. Several of these substances are suspected to be carcinogenic and endocrine disruptors and are extremely persistent in nature. In this project, the ambition is to further develop the current biodegradable and partially bio-based product and make it 100% bio-based, which will be completely unique in the market for textile impregnation.
“Vinnova’s financing of POPFREE contributes strongly to phase out PFAS from Swedish products, which we see as very important. That we, together with companies such as Bergans and Houdini and organizations such as the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, ChemSec, RISE and IVL, have the opportunity to develop and test a 100% bio-based and biodegradable textile impregnation is the step that means that we both get away from PFAS but also take the technology for textile impregnation to a new level where also the fossil raw material is phased out and changed to a completely green, renewable raw material “, says Mårten Hellberg, CEO of OrganoClick.
