What has been done in the MIDWOR-LIFE project?

What have we done?

A. PREPARATORY ACTIONS

A1. Selection of the most representative textile materials and finishing technologies

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A study of the textile materials and finishing technologies and products available on the market has been done by the three participating clusters and LEITAT. Five representative textiles (on which DWORs are applied), 2 current DWORs and seven alternatives were selected. The study includes a survey on finishing companies and chemicals producers from Spain (AEI TEXTIL), Czech Republic (CLUTEX) and Italy (CS-POINTEX). For more details the related deliverable documents are provided below:

Deliverable A1.1: Report on the study of textile materials, DWOR finishing and alternatives

A2. Pre-screening of functionality and environmental impact of DWOR

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A pre-screening of the technical performance and environmental impact of the selected current DWORs and of their alternatives was carried out BY LEITAT and CETIM, respectively. For more details the related deliverable documents are provided below:

Deliverable A2: Report on the state of the art technical and environmental data of the selected conventional and alternative DWOR

B. IMPLEMENTATION ACTIONS

B1. Demonstration of DWOR and alternative material processing

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This action has done application trials (on the selected textile materials) at pre-industrial scale in LEITAT facilities, the demonstration at industrial scale for the selected DWORs and alternatives followed in six textile finisher companies in the Czech Republic, Spain and Italy with the support of the cluster in each region. For more details the related deliverable documents are provided below:

Deliverable B1.1: Report applications and characterization of DWOR and alternatives on the pre-industrial

Deliverable B1.2: Report on the industrial applications and characterization of DWOR and alternatives

B2. Risk assessment of Durable Water and Oil Repellents in textile finishing process

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In this action, LEITAT has evaluated the risks of 8 Durable Water and Oil Repellents (DWORs) for human and environmental health when they are used as hydro- and oleo-repellent textile finishing products. These studies have been carried out in relevant exposure scenarios in the textile finishing industry for DWOR additives at the different life cycle stages.

Deliverable B2 – Report on Risk assessment of DWORs in textile finishing processes 

B3 .Comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of the best available technologies

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The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been used to evaluate the environmental aspects associated with the products over its life cycle will be used. A comparison of the environmental impact of using conventional and alternative DWOR finishing products is presented in the deliverable.

Deliverable B3 – Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Studies of the Alternative DWOR Chemicals

B4. Technical Workshops for the textile industry

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Technical workshops for the textile and chemical industries were organized by AEI TEXTIL, CLUTEX and CS-POINTEX in order to identify technical barriers for the replacement of current DWORs (long chain fluorocarbon based). These workshops have counted with the collaboration of LEITAT and CETIM for the more technical contents and presentations.

B5. Roadmap and tool

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A Road Map was elaborated by CSIC-IQAC, with the collaboration of LEITAT, to define the steps to follow after the end of the project and guide the road to a precise direction during approximately the next 10 years after the project. The aim of this action was also to guarantee that the objectives of the project will be reached and new actions will be carried out after the project end to ensure its continuity and a noticeable reduction of the impact of long-chain fluorocarbon based repellents.

B6. Policy recommendations (chemical regulation, Ecolabel, Green Public Procurement).

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The objective of this action was to set policy recommendations in order to promote the widespread implementation of alternatives to DWORs. The recommendations will be useful to establish future policies or voluntary schemes, at the European, regional and local level.

Deliverable B6.1: Recommendation for the Textile Sector with BREF review

Deliverable B6.2: Recommendations to update REACH annexes

Deliverable B6.3: Recommendations for voluntary schemes

C. IMPACT MONITORING

C1. Monitoring the project impacts on the environment

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This monitoring action, led by LEITAT, identified and quantified the environmental impacts of the project implementation, and evaluated the potential environmental impact of the introduction of the implemented actions into the EU scenario.

Deliverable C1: Report on the environmental performance of project’s implementation

C2. Monitoring the socio-economic impact of the project on the local economy and population

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This action evaluated the socio-economic impact expected on the local economy and community by implementing the proposed DWOR alternatives and the related environmental and risk management measures into EU textile industry. CS-POINTEX led the study based on the social life cycle assessment (S–LCA) method. CLUTEX and LEITAT also participated in the assessment with the collaboration of all partners when needed.

Baseline Scenario report

Deliverable C2 – Report on socioeconomic assessment of the project implementation

C3. Monitoring the cost-efficient replicability or transferability of the project

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This action monitored the cost-efficient, replicability or transferability of the project using the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) methodology. The project results have been demonstrated to be feasible not only at the environmental level but also at economic one. With such goal, LEITAT incorporated economic criteria to monitor the effectiveness of the actions and results.

Deliverable C3.1 Preliminary report on cost-efficiency methodology and system defined

Deliverable C3.2: Report on the cost-efficient replicability or transferability of the project

D. PUBLIC AWARENESS AND DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS

D1. Project website

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This action focused on launching and maintaining the project’s website to support both the operation and monitoring of demonstration and project implementation activities, and for managing project communication actions and holding links with EU Commission, LIFE Programme, other LIFE projects, and other information resources. This task was led by AEI TEXTIL and all partners contributed periodically with articles, news and the publication of public deliverables.

D2. Dissemination and communication materials

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For this action, AEI TEXTIL hired a graphic designer to create the project’s image. The design was defined putting together the opinions of all partners and the final logo and color combination was voted from a selection of alternatives. The partners translated the brochures to Spanish, Italian and Catalan languages. Press releases are issued after each consortium meeting and/or dissemination event.

This action covered the following activities:

1. Newsletters
2. Brochures
3. Project Panel
4. Press release
5. Notice Board.

Dissemination materials can be downloaded here.

D3. LAYMAN’S Report

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Layman’s report was designed according to LIFE Programme requirements in order to provide a general and brief overview of the project and its outcomes. It is available in all project partner languages.

English version.

Spanish version.

Italian version.

Czech version.

Catalan version.

D4. Other communication and dissemination activities

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This action aimed at managing the communication and dissemination activities related to MIDWOR-LIFE project, complementing action D2 and ensuring the quality of the activities to develop. This action included the development of a communication and dissemination plan to guarantee the accessibility to the project results and disseminate the project at European scale for a greater scope of the project outputs.

The actions carried out by the project partners have been:

• AEI TEXTIL: ETP Annual Conference 2016 (13-14 April’16, Brussels-Belgium): distribution of leaflets and networking with other projects.
• AEI TEXTIL: CITEXT’16 (27-28 April’16 Troyes-France): distribution of leaflets and presentation of the roll-up.
• CLUTEX: mTex fair (30/5-2/6 16’ Chemnitz, Germany): Presentation of the project by the leaflets on the CLUTEX stand.
• CLUTEX + IQAC-CSIC: 24^th IFATCC International Congress (Pardubice, Czech Republic, 13-16^th June 2016). CLUTEX: Presentation of the project as part of the cluster’ portfolio. IQAC-CSIC: Presentation of a poster. The title of the poster was Mitigation of environmental impact caused by DWOR textile finishing chemicals studying their nontoxic alternatives.
• AEI TEXTIL: Participation in the 4^th edition of the Texmeeting Conference (Barcelona, Spain), 29^th
• AEI TEXTIL: Dornbirn Man-Made Fibers Congress (Dornbirn, Austria, 20-22^nd September 2016): distribution of leaflets and networking with stakeholders.
• CS-POINTEX: FILO’s 46^th International Yarns Exhibition (Milan Italy, 28-29^th September 2016): distribution of leaflets and presentation of the roll-up.
• AEI TEXTIL: ETP conference (Brussels, Belgium, 30-31^st March 2017): presentation of the project within the session Sustainability – Resource Efficiency.
• CS-POINTEX: FILO’s 47^th International Yarns Exhibition (Milan Italy, 22-23^rd February 2017): distribution of leaflets and presentation of the roll-up.
• CLUTEX, LEITAT, AEI-TEXTIL: TECHTEXTIL ^th Technical textile Exhibition (Fraknfurt, Germany, 9-12^th May 2017): distribution of leaflets and presentation of the roll-up.
• LEITAT: ICCE 2017 Conference (Oslo, Norway, 18-22^nd June 2017): Oral presentation of the project on the commercial alternatives of using perfluorinated chemicals containing chains of 7 or 8 perfluorinated carbons in textiles.
• CETIM: LCM2017 Conference (Luxembourg, Luxembourg, 4-6^th September 2017): Oral presentation and poster: “Environmental analysis of the best available finishing products to provide water, oil and dirt repellency in the textile sector. A Life Cycle Assessment approach.”
• AEI TEXTIL: Dornbirn Man-Made Fibers Congress (Dornbirn, Austria, 13-15^th September 2017): distribution of leaflets and networking with stakeholders.
• AEI TEXTIL: International Trade fair A+A (Düsseldorf , Germany, 17-20^th October 2017): distribution of leaflets and networking with stakeholders.
• AEI TEXTIL: Technical Textile Meetings Morocco (Casablanca, Morocco, 22-23^rd November 2017): distribution of leaflets and networking with stakeholders.
• AEI TEXTIL, LEITAT, CSIC-IQAC: FLAREX Stakeholder’s Workshop (Brussels, Belgium, 16^th January 2018): distribution of leaflets in workshop documentation, exhibition of poster and networking with stakeholders.
• CSIC-IQAC: 43^rd SYMPOSIUM DE LA AEQCT (Terrassa, Spain, 21^st March 2018): poster presentation, distribution of leaflets in conference pack and networking with stakeholders.
• CLUTEX participated at mTEX 2018 on March 2018
• LEITAT presented a poster on MIDWOR-LIFE risk assessment in SETAC Rome 2018.
• AEI TEXTIL participated at CITEXT 2018 in Troyes (France) on May 16 and 17th.
• AEI TEXTIL participated at Colombiamoda 2018 + Textiles2 in Medellin, Colombia, from July 24-26th 2018 where the project was also presented at the Knowledge pavilion as a conference on sustainability and circular economy.
• CETIM  presented the project LCA project results at Berlin LCIC 2018 conference on August 29-31st 2018.

The press impact report can be downloaded here.

D5. Networking with other projects

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This action focused on the establishment of direct contacts with other European projects (including LIFE projects) and European research groups working in the field of the project.

More information about LIFE program and projects

E. PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING OF THE PROJECT PROGRESS

E1. Project Management and Monitoring

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AEI TEXTIL as coordinator beneficiary had the responsibility of full project management and implementation. For that, a group of activities were set to ensure the correct progress of the project, in order to make possible the fulfillment of the contractual obligations of the Grant Agreement and according to the working schedule.

E2. Indicators

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Indicators to assist the monitoring of the projects were defined according to the European Commission and LIFE programme guidelines.

E4. After-LIFE Communication Plan

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This action focused on the development of an After LIFE communication plan to ensure a wide post-project dissemination at a national and European level.
Deliverable E4 – After-LIFE Communication plan (EN)

Actions which have been cancelled

E3. Financial Audit

According to an Amendment to the Grant Agreement, a Financial Audit is no longer mandatory for all projects. Now it is mandatory for each beneficiary under specific conditions.