Shortlisted applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch their solution to The Natural Fibre Company. The final successful applicant will deliver a feasibility study or proof-of-concept trial with The Natural Fibre Company, to demonstrate the benefits of a solution. The project team will receive a £25,000 grant award, to be apportioned between The Natural Fibre Company and the successful applicant, as agreed on a bilateral basis.

The Natural Fibre Company
The Natural Fibre Company (NFC) is a British wool spinner, located in Launceston, Cornwall in the South West of England. The company is expert in fibre processing, adding value to fleece, and working with Wool, Alpaca and Mohair amongst other types of natural fibres and materials.
NFC services include scouring, carding, Woollen and Worsted Spinning, and finishing and these processes take place at its mill, which is efficient and designed to keep its carbon footprint to a minimum. NFC also recycles most of the waste materials that it generates from manufacturing processes to support our green agenda, any Future Net Zero accreditation and the circular economy.
Figure 1: Image of the Natural Fibre Company mill

Background

7d264c14-c858-4388-aaa7-a2a616a4357a/NFCfacility.png

NFC is unique because it tailors its services to meet customer individual needs and can process quantities of fleece from 20 kilos to over a tonne or more. It offers a personalised service and can process small batches as well as source additional fibre to make up an order, providing evidence of traceability. &nbsp;NFC handles each order of incoming fibre separately so its customers can be assured that only their fibre is returned to them. &nbsp; &nbsp;
NFC also offers Organically Certified Processing every two years in line with its accreditation from the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).
As well as handling wool for customers, NFC works with a range of natural fibres such as Silk, Linen and Bamboo and some less familiar and alternative materials as part of its inhouse testing facility.
Wool Scouring at NFC
The process of wool scouring is undertaken to remove grease and other debris from raw wool after it has arrived from the farm. The raw fleece is fed into a hopper and goes through a series of tanks, rotated by paddles and forks. The fleece is washed in water, a wetting agent and organic soap which is GOTS approved, in different bowls at 68C and 65C. This removes any waste products and then it is rinsed and pressed to remove any excess water and the waste &lsquo;liquor&rsquo;. It is then bagged and then placed into commercial dryers in batches to dry the material thoroughly before proceeding to its next phase of blending.
Water consumption and drying processes
The overall scouring process is centuries old and is quite energy and water inefficient. Water is non-recyclable currently and must be collected from a 3000-gallon tank in the NFC facility yard, creating a large recurring cost for NFC. NFC has engaged the University of Plymouth to undertake a chemical analysis of wastewater and liquor, although this has not yet yielded any commercial outputs.
The drying process is a major constraint on company growth because throughput of wool is limited significantly by the time taken to undertake drying.
Figure 2: NFC Scouring machinery

70c3f7ca-ce33-4a18-8789-cc2571a11a2d/NFCScouringPlant.png

Figure 3: NFC drying area

ccae2ac9-7c41-4850-b469-e67ba0981d53/Wooldryers.png

Shortlisted applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to NFC. The final winning solution provider will receive:
<ul>
<li>A portion of a &pound;25,000 grant award to work with NFC on delivery of a feasibility study or proof-of-concept trial (exact terms and funding amount to be agreed between NFC and the winning solution provider)</li>
<li>Support from KTN, if it is required</li>
<li>Invitations to attend or present at KTN events</li>
<li>Investor introductions, if required</li>
<li>Support if any Innovate UK or similar competitions are relevant.</li>
</ul>

Rewards & Benefits

Currently, NFC use Nyberg 75T commercial tumble dryers to dry each 10-15kg batch for 5-10 minutes each, which it understands is an unacceptable and inefficient way to dry the wool. NFC seeks an alternative drying process or product, such as an in-line drying machine, which can make the drying process more efficient. Improving the drying process would unlock significant capacity increases for the NFC facility.
NFC also welcomes proposals that seek to improve the overall scouring process. For example, non-aqueous scouring solutions or water recycling methods.
An alternative drying technology must consider the following factors:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Capacity and batching - NFC currently has a maximum capacity of one tonne of raw wool at a time within its facility, but it is most common for it to deliver 10-15kg batches of raw wool. Each of these batches must be dried separately to maintain integrity and separation of each customer&rsquo;s product.</li>
<li>Sector best-practice &ndash; Major scouring plants would typically have bespoken in-line drying systems, which host conveyor belts for feeding of material. These are multi-million-pound machines that are not appropriate for NFC.</li>
<li>State of the material &ndash; When the wool enters the drying process, it is saturated, but it has been pressed to remove some excess water.</li>
<li>Wool degradation &ndash; The more that wool is handled, the more that the material is compromised, so any process should not deliver significantly more physical harm to the material than the current souring and drying process.</li>
<li>Footprint &ndash; Any new drying solution must fit within the current space occupied by the existing commercial dryers.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Energy Consumption &ndash; Any new drying solution should be energy efficient and competitive with a typical commercial tumble dryer.</li>
<li>Drying speed - The wool needs to dry at the same speed as the throughput from the scourer. If this is not achieved, the solution provider must propose a way of drying batches that does not require more space than the footprint, outlined below.</li>
</ul>

Functional Requirements

Any solutions should adhere to the following technical requirements:
<ul>
<li>Footprint of 21.4m length, 4.17m wide, 4.4m high.</li>
<li>Accommodate multiple batches of 10-15kg of wool at a time</li>
<li>Faster than 5-10 minutes drying for a 10-15kg batch, and 60 minutes for a 1 tonne batch</li>
<li>More energy efficient than s standard commercial tumble dryer &ndash; 50% would be a sensible target</li>
</ul>

Technical Requirements

The ambient environment in the NFC facility is typically 18-25C but varies with seasons. Humidity is often high and can cause issues for machinery.

Operating Conditions

<ul>
<li>Launch of the Competition: 09/12/22</li>
<li>Deadline for applications: 13/01/23</li>
<li>Selection and notification of finalists: 19/01/23</li>
<li>Solutions should be fully deployable for prototype testing within 1 month of competition win and fully deployable commercially within 6 months.</li>
</ul>

Deployment Timescale

There are 365 UK companies &nbsp;in textile manufacturing with turnover &pound;500k to &pound;1m (Similar in size to NFC). UK manufacturers sold &pound;100.9m of carded woven fibre and animal hair in 2021 alone. &nbsp;NFC is unique because it scours smaller batches up to up 1 tonne, which services the Micro, SME and sampling market with minimum order of 20Kgs, which the large scale scourers find imposes on their mass production methods.
The artisan textile and wool industry is a multi-billion-pound global industry and represents a significant market opportunity for a successful solution.

Cost Requirement & Market Opportunity

Applications will be assessed on:
<ul>
<li>Relevance to the topic</li>
<li>Innovative nature of the subject</li>
<li>Coherence of the proposed business model</li>
<li>Feasibility/ economic viability</li>
<li>Development potential</li>
<li>Maturity of project/solution</li>
<li>Ability to launch project quickly/Ease of implementation</li>
<li>Price/quality ratio</li>
<li>Suitability for the UK and European Market</li>
</ul>
Entrants to this competition must:
<ul>
<li>Be SMEs or individual entrepreneurs</li>
<li>Be UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base</li>
<li>Have not exceeded its Minimum Financial Assistance limit (or De Minimis, where relevant). Further details below.</li>
</ul>
Minimal Financial Assistance
In line with the UK&rsquo;s Subsidy Control Framework, awards of up to &pound;315,000 can be made to a single enterprise over a rolling 3-year financial period.
The award limit of &pound;315,000 includes any funding received under European Commission <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/competition/state_aid/legislation/de_minimis_regulation_en.pdf">De Minimis Regulation</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subsidy-control-bill-2021-bill-documents">Minimal Financial Assistance</a> (previously referred to as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complying-with-the-uks-international-obligations-on-subsidy-control-guidance-for-public-authorities#step-3-if-you-are-within-scope-of-the-uk-eu-tca-you-must-ensure-that-the-subsidy-meets-the-terms-of-the-principles">Special Drawing Rights</a>) over a rolling 3-year financial period.
De minimis
If the applicant enterprise is conducting activities that will affect trade of goods and/or electricity between Northern Ireland and the EU as envisaged by Article 10 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the EU Withdrawal Agreement, the usual European Commission limit for De minimis of 200,000 euros applies. For further information, please see <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complying-with-the-uks-international-obligations-on-subsidy-control-guidance-for-public-authorities/technical-guidance-on-the-uks-international-subsidy-control-commitments#section-1">step 3 of the BEIS technical guidance</a>.

Eligibility & Assessment Criteria

<ul>
<li>Existing background IP associated with a potential solution will remain with Solution Provider(s). Where any new IP generation is envisaged, it will be subject to the mutual IP agreement of the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger. This will be agreed after the Innovation Challenger has chosen the winning solution provider.</li>
<li>Any commercial deployment of a transferred solution or newly developed solution, through licensing, joint venture, partnership or direct investment, will be subject to the commercial agreement between the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger.</li>
<li>Where necessary, a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) may be signed to uphold confidentiality in the engagement between the Solution Provider(s) and Innovation Challenger. (This would be expected to be after company selection. It is therefore suggested that details of sensitive IP not disclosed until after an agreement has been reached by the Solution Provider and the Challenger).</li>
<li>Innovate UK and KTN do not take any share of IP ownership or enter into commercial ventures through the iX programme.</li>
</ul>

Alternative drying processes for textile production

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Opportunity

Challenge opens

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Background

This challenge is brought to you by:

Alternative drying processes for textile production