Wool keratin-based pigment is 100 percent biodegradable. Photo: Wool Source
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 which could replace oil based ones in products like inks and dye.
And those working on the wool-derived products say the recent breakthrough 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 to further develop products to suit their needs.
"It's one of those things where there's 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.
Wool Source aims to build a mid-sized production facility in the near future, Hooper says. Photo: Wool Source
The breakthroughs are around developing the colour and intensity of the particle, and a super fine one - under a micron in size.
"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, for dyes and inks across the world, so they're very significantly sized markets. So think screen printing onto T shirts. Potentially we're important in that space. All of the carriers that carry colour globally 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 percent bio content and we're 100 percent biodegradable.
"And yes it means we're now competitive in those fields."
It takes a lot of work to get the science and the research to the right point, Hooper says. Photo: Wool Source
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 proved on a commercial scale, volumes would very quickly increase, he said.
"We've been relatively quiet to date because we haven't wanted 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 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 percent of New Zealand's strong wool clip in the future.
