Waterless Dying

How It Works

Boiling hundreds of gallons of water is very energy intensive, and wastes excessive amounts of fuel and electricity. We have a different way of achieving rich color in our clothes.

gallons of water is used per shirt in the conventional dyeing process

Dyeing is a water-intensive process

To achieve a rich color, dye particles must penetrate a fabric completely. We use a liquid solution called a solvent to evenly carry dye throughout a fabric. One of the most common solvents used for dyeing, painting, and other chemical reactions is water. But after the reaction is complete, how do we separate the excess dye particles from the water?

Separation of solvents through boiling

Typically separation is achieved through distillation—the process of boiling the solvent off, leaving the dye behind. The downside to this approach is that boiling hundreds of gallons of water is very energy intensive, and wastes excessive amounts of fuel and electricity.

Conventional Dye Process

Step 2: Dye Separation
Heat the dye bath and water will boil off leaving excess dye.

Step 1: Fabric Dyeing

Dye binds to fiber at high temperatures in water.

Step 2: Dye Separation

Heat the dye bath and water will boil off leaving excess dye.

Using CO2 instead of H20

To reduce the amount of water needed to dye our products, we focus on the pressure and temperature of boiling—turning the solvent from a liquid to gas, while leaving the dye behind. Known as the boiling point, this allows us to harness the unique boiling points of carbon dioxide (specifically “supercritical” carbon dioxide, which is more liquid than gas at high pressure).

By using pressurized carbon dioxide instead of water as our solvent in the dyeing process, and releasing it as a gas, we lower our energy use considerably and save over 130,000 of gallons of water every year.