The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded Modern Meadow, a purpose-driven biotechnology company with a mission to enable world transition to sustainable materials, its prestigious Green Chemistry Challenge Award in the Small Business Category. Modern Meadow was one of only five 2023 Green Chemistry Challenge Award winners who were honored at a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C. on October 23, 2023. - The EPA recognizes Modern Meadow with this prestigious award for creating Bio-FREED™, Fast Resources Efficient Enhanced Dyeability technology, powered by Bio-Alloy™, a more efficient textile dyeing process that uses less water, energy, dyes and chemicals compared to traditional methods.
"All of us at Modern Meadow are very honored by this award," said David Willimson, CSTO. "I would like to thank the EPA for considering our contributions to green chemistry and making textiles more sustainable. I want to thank our dedicated team of scientists and engineers for inventing, developing, and scaling methods for greener and cheaper textile dyeing processes. I also want to thank our formulation, field development, commercial, operations, and corporate development teams for paving the way to pilot our technology at one of the highly respected and regarded textile mills, Limonta, where they will have a great impact due to their potential to reduce the need for water, energy and chemicals."
Bio-FREED™ Fast Resource Efficient Enhancing Dyeing powered by Bio-Alloy™ delivers to the textile industry a greener one-step dyeing system that is a drop-in to replace the commonly used three-step dyeing process. Bio-FREED™ is a one-step continuous dyeing process that reduces water use by up to 95%, dye usage by up to 80% and decreases energy use by approximately 67%. Water reduction is achieved by eliminating two of the three water-intense steps, whereas the 80% dye usage reduction is achieved through precision delivery of the dyes to the fiber surface in the textile. Similarly, eliminating two energy-intensive steps decreases energy usage by approximately 67%. Bio-FREED™ treated textiles can also be pre-dyed or post-dyed further enabling additional environmental and supply chain benefits.
The Bio-FREED™ process is unique because it also increases production efficiency while improving polyester fibers' resistance to color migration. Furthermore, It also offers a greater reduction in water and energy use relative to the ECOFAST Pure technology claims.