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Every day, millions of workers suit up in protective clothing before their shift — flame-resistant coveralls, hazmat gear, surgical gloves. This equipment saves lives. But what happens to it afterwards, and at what environmental cost?
These questions drove the third webinar of the ECPC 2027 series, hosted by TTK University of Applied Sciences. Prof. Patricia Dolez of the University of Alberta guided an international audience through the science of making PPE sustainable without sacrificing protection.
The webinar is part of a series leading up to the European Conference of Protective Clothing (ECPC2027), which will take place at TTK University of Applied Sciences in May 2027.
The silent degradation problem
High-performance protective fibres — aramid, polybenzimidazole — degrade invisibly. A firefighter’s bunker suit may have lost 75% of its strength while still looking pristine. Standards mandate replacement after 10 years regardless of actual condition.
Prof. Dolez’s group has developed end-of-life sensors: a sacrificial polymer — one that ages like the protective fabric — combined with a conductive graphene track. As the polymer degrades it micro-cracks, changing the track’s electrical resistance. A simple handheld meter tells the firefighter whether the gear is still fit for service. The technology is now being scaled up with an industry partner. A complementary approach uses dye-embedded gloves that change colour on contact with toxic gases, so PPE is only discarded when genuinely contaminated.
In sustainability, the professor’s presentation relies on the 4Rs: reduce, reuse, recycling, and recovery.
Reuse and reduce: washing, decontamination, and self-cleaning fabrics
UV germicidal irradiation can disinfect disposable masks for reuse, though UV degrades materials over time. Washability studies on firefighter outer shells showed significant performance loss after repeated commercial laundering — again invisible to the eye.
More powerfully, self-detoxifying fabrics neutralise hazards on contact. N-halamine polymers inactivate bacteria and viruses via a chlorine–nitrogen bond and are recharged with bleach. Silver nanoparticles release antimicrobial ions on contact with moisture. A prototype nanofibre membrane combines both — silver for biological threats and magnesium oxide for chemical agents — without mixing incompatible materials.
Recycling and recovery
Canadian company General Recycled collects used aramid coveralls from the oil and gas sector, shreds them, and re-spins them into new flame-resistant fabric — a genuine closed loop. At the recovery end, researchers are developing biodegradable PPE: hemp-and-cornstarch face masks that decompose in six months, and nitrile gloves engineered to attract microbes that enzymatically break them down.
From hemp field to firefighter suit
The centrepiece of Prof. Dolez’s research is producing Lyocell fibres from Canadian hemp farming residues and recycled flame-resistant cotton workwear, using the NMMO solvent process — far less toxic than conventional viscose, with over 99.5% solvent recovery.
Hemp pulp required extensive optimisation — decortication, pre-hydrolysis, alkali pulping, chelation, bleaching — before reaching the purity needed for spinning. The team achieved alpha-cellulose above 96% and fibre properties matching commercial Lyocell. Most remarkably, the phosphorus-based flame retardant in the recycled coveralls survived the entire process, yielding a fibre with ~2% phosphorus content — potentially sufficient for inherent flame resistance, creating a permanently fire-safe bio-based material from waste feedstock.
The webinar is available to watch in full HERE.
The next webinar in the series PPE and protection against the ingress of combustion products will take place on June 15, 2026. Speakers include Kamila Lunerová and Jakub Vaněk, webinar is moderated by Professor Ada Traumann. Register for the webinar HERE.
Learn more about the ECPC2027 conference and the webinar series: https://ecpc2027.ee and ECPC LinkedIn.
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