Lenzing LYOCELL - chances of a new generation of manmade fibres

Cellulose is natures most important organic constructional and functional polymeric material and correspondigly has a variety of excellent and very specific properties. These properties can be used for a large number of products and can also be specifically modified as soon as it is possible to dissolve the cellulose and then to regenerate it in the desired shape. The progress in the development of the new Lyocell fibre, the better understanding of its performance and the possibilities to modify it, but also several completely new applications of the Lyocell process for other products show that the direct regeneration of cellulose from a solution in an organic solvent opens the path for a completely new utilisation of this outstanding property potential. Lyocell therefore not only offers the chance for a new generation of cellulosic fibres-also for new applications-but altogether also for a renaissance of cellulose for a large variety of products, where on the one side cellulose has been substituted during the last decades by synthetic polymers but where on the other side several completely new applications will be accessible for this outstanding polymer.