H&M wants to make clothes out of CO2 using this startup’s technology

The fashion industry knows it has a waste problem. About a truckload of textiles are thrown into the trash every second. Meanwhile, the industry produces more carbon pollution than international flights and ocean shipping combined.

Some companies are experimenting with new ways to recycle textile waste, while others are developing new materials that do not require fossil fuels. A startup, Ruby“it’s basically taking the machinery of biology out of the cell” to make the building blocks of lyocell and viscose, co-founder and CEO Neeka Mashouf told TechCrunch. The startup’s technology would allow any company that uses cellulose to make products from captured carbon dioxide.

Rubi recently raised $7.5 million to build a demonstration scale of its cellulose production system, which is designed to produce tens of tons of the material using CO₂ as its main component. The round was led by AP Ventures and FH One Investments, with participation from CMPC Ventures, H&M Group, Talis Capital and Understorey Ventures, Rubi told TechCrunch exclusively.

The startup has closed more than $60 million in non-binding off-take deals with a few partners, Mashouf told TechCrunch. The company has tested the hardware with 15 pilot partners, including H&M, Patagonia and Walmart.

To produce cellulose for lyocell or viscose, Rubi uses enzymes. This differs from other startups, which may use engineered bacteria in a fermenter or chemical catalysts to convert carbon dioxide into the compound. Today, most cellulose comes from trees, including plantations and virgin rainforests.

“These textile and raw material supply chains are very long,” Mashouf said. “Here in the U.S., we’re interested in being able to actually produce cellulose pulp that’s high quality, where it doesn’t exist today.”

The idea to use enzymes came when Mashouf, who as a scientist was researching new materials, collaborated with her twin sister, Leila, who was studying medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We looked at all the technology out there,” he said, but they kept coming back to enzymes.

The enzyme industry is huge, he said. It is used to make high fructose corn syrup and to treat wastewater. “The capacity is already out there and it can be very low cost.”

Rubi uses a “cascade” of enzymes to process waste carbon dioxide. The company has used artificial intelligence and machine learning methods to enhance the efficiency and stability of enzymes.

Currently, the enzymes float in an aqueous solution, and as carbon dioxide is added, white cellulose will appear inside the reactor within minutes, Mashouf said. The reactors fit inside shipping container sized units. Eventually, Rubi plans to change its process to allow for continuous production.

While the startup is targeting apparel companies as its first customers, it eventually hopes to provide cellulose to every industry that uses it. “This is really a platform,” Mashouf said. “We think of it as a platform to produce all the important chemicals and materials across the economy in a low-cost way.”