Executive Summary
Challenge in One Sentence
CHT Group seeks a gentle, cost-efficient process to remove reactive dyes from cotton textiles while preserving fibre strength, enabling both recolouring and textile-to-textile recycling.
Why This Matters
Textile recycling is becoming increasingly important and is subject to growing legal requirements, and dye removal is one of the key obstacles to recycling cotton. Today's decolouring processes rely on aggressive chemicals such as hydrosulphite and caustic soda that strip the colour but damage the fibre, reducing its strength and reusability. A gentle process would allow decoloured cotton to be re-dyed or recycled into high-quality yarn, while lowering the environmental footprint of the process. For CHT, this is both a current operational need in textile finishing and a strategic future field in recycling.
Solution Space
We are looking for solutions that can provide:
- Effective removal (full strip-off) of reactive dyes from cotton
- Fibre-friendly process that preserves the mechanical strength of the cotton fibre
- Mild, fibre-friendly chemistry working in an aqueous system (technology-open — enzymatic is one possible idea, not a requirement)
- Low process cost and compatibility with standard textile finishing equipment (e.g. jet machines)
The Venture Client project focuses on validating a working process on standard cotton samples in a controlled PoC before broader development and commercialization decisions are made.
Why Participate?
This challenge offers solution providers the opportunity to validate their technology together with a leading specialty-chemistry group with deep roots in the textile world.
Participants can gain:
- A financed PoC within a structured Venture Client framework
- Direct collaboration with CHT's textile and application experts
- Access to real customer samples and textile-finishing process context
- A clear pathway toward joint development, supply or licensing arrangements
A strong industry reference case in sustainable textile chemistry
Process (Overview)
The participation process is structured to provide fast clarity and a fair evaluation for all applicants:
- Submit your application answering key questions about your solution, its maturity and expected value contribution.
- Evaluation & shortlisting based on problem fit, feasibility and expected impact.
- Get-to-Know Session with CHT Group to explore use case alignment and requirements.
- Proof of Concept (PoC) Building with a clearly defined scope, tested on standard cotton samples.
- Successful solutions will then enter joint development and scale-up phases.
Who can participate?
Startups, scaleups, technology companies and research organizations developing gentle, sustainable decolouring, bleaching or dye-removal solutions for textiles.