The Wooldryscouring (WDS) Project – Eco-Efficient Dry Wool Scouring with Total By-Products Recovery – received the award for Best LIFE-Environment Project for the 2016–2017 period. The WDS project was chosen by the EU Member States, represented on the LIFE Committee, together with the LIFE Unit, which identified the 22 Best LIFE-Environment projects completed during 2016–2017. Details can be found on the LIFE Programme website.
The award is based on a set of ‘best practice’ criteria, including projects’ contributions to immediate and long-term environmental, economic, and social improvements; their degree of innovation and transferability; their relevance to policy; and their cost-effectiveness.
Results:
The Wooldryscouring (WDS) project demonstrated an innovative wool scouring cleaning process to remove impurities in the early stages of wool manufacturing. This resulted in a cleaner product and reduced environmental impact in terms of water and energy consumption and polluted wastewater generation. The consortium—comprising LEITAT and CSIC as research centres, RMT as an industrial partner, and Tavares as a scouring plant—designed, built, tested, and demonstrated at pilot scale the new technology, which uses organic solvents instead of the hot water with alkalis and detergents used in conventional wool scouring. In this way, grease (mainly lanolin) can be extracted at an earlier stage, for example, for use in the cosmetic industry. To achieve this, the WDS approach uses a batch production process rather than the conventional continuous production process in water. This new approach is highly innovative in the sector.
As a result of the pilot demonstration, the project team produced wool that was whiter, cleaner, smoother, and had larger fibres than conventionally scoured wool. The project’s wool was practically free of grease content, with 95% of wool grease (lanolin) being recovered for use as a valuable by-product. In addition, nearly 100% of the wool dust was recovered, which can be used as an agricultural fertiliser.
The new dry scouring process resulted in several environmental benefits:
- Water:
- 70% reduction in water consumption
- 70% reduction in wastewater effluents in the rinsing process
- 75% lower Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) in wastewater
- 70% reduction in the need for detergents and chemicals
- Energy and climate:
- 30% reduction in energy consumption, mainly from wastewater management
- Carbon footprint reduced by 96 kg of CO2 equivalent per functional unit
- Waste: 95% recovery of lanolin and other by-products, avoiding expensive water treatment and waste disposal
The WDS technology has a lower environmental impact (Life Cycle Assessment, LCA) compared to traditional wool scouring. The low fugitive emissions of solvents measured at the pilot plant—due to solvent manipulation and vacuum suction pumps—could be significantly reduced at an industrial scale through mechanization and automation.
The technology also provides economic benefits. Reductions in waste generation, water, energy, and chemical consumption using the WDS technology resulted in significant cost savings compared to conventional wool scouring. An Economic Assessment conducted by the project team showed that the WDS process should be economically viable in Europe and holds high replicability potential. The project’s technology represents a significant step towards achieving a closed-loop system where all waste streams are recovered as by-products, aligning with EU circular economy policy and the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.
From a policy perspective, the valorisation of the dust and grease recovered using the WDS process aligns with the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), which prioritises waste valorisation over disposal. Furthermore, reductions in water consumption and improvements in effluent quality contribute to implementing the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), which aims to achieve good status for all EU water bodies.
The project proved the environmental and economic viability of the new technology. The project beneficiaries are now seeking partners to implement WDS at a semi-industrial scale to build confidence in the sector, as the adoption of WDS requires a substantial process shift—replacing traditional continuous water-based scouring with batch solvent-based scouring.
This process has the potential to increase the competitiveness of the European wool industry. Many European wool scouring companies struggle with wastewater treatment costs, which account for nearly 28% of total production costs. Due to a lack of viable alternatives, some wool scourers are closing. Currently, only 18 wool scouring manufacturers remain in Europe, forcing wool traders to sell greasy wool to other countries where scouring costs are lower. The WDS process could reverse this trend, helping to sustain and revive the wool industry in Europe by being 25% cheaper, with further economic advantages from lanolin valorisation. Industrial implementation could also create new jobs and improve worker health by reducing odour and dust exposure. Around 18 industries have requested to receive updated information following the project’s completion.
For more information, contact: sbalsells@leitat.org
