In 2019, Reiner Mantsch and Steffen Gerlach founded the startup EEDEN. Since then, they have been working on the development of a chemical recycling process for textile waste. The goal is to process cotton-based waste textiles into virgin cellulose fibers or the raw material cellulose.
As a student of textile technology at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Reiner initiated the project. With his background in the natural sciences, Reiner is responsible for developing and setting up the process. At an early stage, he called in Steffen, who at that time had completed his studies in business administration at the University of Hamburg. Since then, a lot of know-how in the field of textile recycling as well as a broad network has been built up. Currently, important test series are being carried out in order to finalize the laboratory process in the course of this year. This is the basis for an intended investment, for the transition to the piloting of the process.

Since 2021, Klaus Berding is a part-time member of the scientific staff at GEMIT Institute in Mönchengladbach focusing on the BioEconomy and its applications. He is in parallel active as consultant in the field of Biotechnology and has worked with fashion & textiles start-ups.
The GEMIT Institute at Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences focuses on application-oriented research in the fields of logistics, IT and human resources to develop sustainability solutions. In the CONUS project, GEMIT is specifically researching the optimization of value chains in different fields by applying digital concepts and the use of bio-based materials. One example is the supply chain in the textile industry where the GEMIT institute can draw on the knowledge within the Niederrhein University. The Faculty of Textile and Clothing Technology is one of the largest study locations in Europe for young textile engineers with a history of more than 100 years.

Thomas studied chemistry and subsequently made his Ph.D. at the Institute of bioprocess engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern with regard to the extraction and purification of heteropolysaccharides from brown algae. In 2012 he started as a research scientist at the Fraunhofer IGB and since 2016, he is the assistant head of the working group “Bioprocess development”. The research topics of Thomas include the extraction of natural polysaccharides like cellulose, latex, and chitin from renewable resources and the purification thereof. Another focus of his work is the chemical and biotechnological modification of the polysaccharides and the respective analytical characterization. He works with several companies and research institutes with the aim to foster the application of renewable resources in textile processing.

Dr. Jakob has been a project leader at the DWI – Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials e.V. since 2013 and works on the development of customized peptide-based coating technologies for the bioeconomy and medical applications. The peptides and proteins used are tailored for the respective application areas by means of protein engineering via specially developed evolution protocols. From 2018 to 2020, Dr. Jakob coordinated the FocusLab “Green Release” at the Bioeconomy Science Center. In the interdisciplinary research project, the anchor peptides were used to develop a rainfast formulation for contact fungicides. The formulation was successfully validated in the field by the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture in 2020. Compared to currently used formulations, the same protective effect was achieved with 3 times less pesticide. Since 2020, Dr. Jakob has been coordinating the BioCoat project in the BIOTEXFUTURE innovation space, in which peptide-based coatings for textiles are being developed.

Inspired by nature and engineered through synthetic biology, Colorifix has developed a revolutionary dyeing process to help the textile industry dramatically reduce its environmental impact. Our entirely biological process of producing, depositing, and fixing pigments onto textiles eliminates the use of toxic chemicals and significantly reduces water and energy consumption compared to conventional dyeing processes.

Charlie Gilbert is a research scientist in the microbial engineering team at Colorifix. The microbial engineering team focuses on leveraging tools and techniques from the fields of synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, natural products, and fermentation to create pigment-producing microbes suitable for industrial-scale textile dyeing. Charlie’s work focuses on tools and pipelines for engineering microbial strains.