Wool keratin-based pigment is around 90 per cent biodegradable. Photo / Wool Source
Wool keratin-based pigment is around 90 per cent biodegradable. Photo / Wool Source
RNZ
Products made from New Zealand’s strong wool clip are set to colour the world.
There has been a significant technological breakthrough in researchers’ ability to turn strong wool fibre into small particles that could replace oil-based ones in products like inks and dyes.
And those working on the wool-derived products say when the recent breakthrough was made, it was a “good day”.
Eighteen months ago, Christchurch-based company Wool Source teamed up with cosmetic brand Karen Murrell to create a lipstick coloured with wool keratin-based pigment.
Wool Source was established by the Wool Research Organisation of New Zealand (WRONZ) in 2021 as a commercialisation venture to test market potential for products developed via the New Uses for Strong Wool programme.
Wool Source chief executive Tom Hooper said since then, several very large international companies have approached their business seeking to further develop products to suit their needs.
“It’s one of those things where a lot of work goes into it in the background to get the science and the research to the right point. But then it all came together,” he said.
The breakthroughs are around developing the colour and intensity of the particle, and a super-fine one - smaller in size than a micron.
“It has opened up some of the really large industrial fields for pigments which are very large-volume.
“Pigments in industrial uses are used in anything from the automotive industry [to] dyes and inks across the world, so they’re very significantly sized markets.
Wool Source aims to build a mid-sized production facility in the near future, chief executive Tom Hooper says. Photo / Wool Source
“So think screen-printing on to T-shirts. Potentially, we’re important in that space.
“All of the carriers that carry colour globally [use what] are pretty much petrochemical compounds, and they don’t break down.
“Because of the way we do it and the fact that we use wool as our particle base, we have 100 per cent bio content and we’re 90 per cent biodegradable.
“And yes, it means we’re now competitive in those fields.”
Hooper said they aimed to build a mid-sized production facility in the near-future and would be working very closely with their international clients.
Once production was proven on a commercial scale, volumes would very quickly increase, he said.
Wool Source chief executive Tom Hooper says it took a lot of work to get the science and research to the right point. Photo / Wool Source
“We’ve been relatively quiet to date because we [didn’t want] to make a lot of noise and make promises we weren’t going to be able to keep.
“But we’ve now got enough confidence in the product and these recent breakthroughs and what they mean that we’re starting to talk openly about it.
“It’s high-value and it’s all brand-new demand. So this market doesn’t exist for wool today.
“So what it means is it’s literally creating a new demand sector for the product and giving wool somewhere else to go which, given the way the market looks at the moment, can only be a really good thing.”
Hooper said it was exciting to now have a project with real momentum that could use up to 20 per cent of New Zealand’s strong wool clip in the future.
