Sonovia is taking the textile industry into the future as we speak, developing the newest way of production in fashion. I spoke with Shay Hershcovich, the co-founder of Sonovia: “It takes eleven-thousand liters of water to produce one pair of jeans,” Shay says. Another problem: the enormous amounts of wastewater dumped due to unsustainable textile production has turned the Jian River in China red from dye.
Shay and the rest of his team at Sonovia are working long and hard to revolutionize the textile industry. By breaking away from outdated methods of dyeing and finishing manufacturing practices, Sonovia aims to create a sustainable future for textile production. According to Sonovia, they claim to “leave the most significant mark on the textile industry since its inception and to enable humanity to enjoy the textiles that surround our lives with a clearer conscience.”
Developed originally at Bar Ilan University outside of Tel Aviv, Sonovia is expanding the new technology of using ultrasound soundwaves to cut down emissions in the textile industry. Via the use of physics, Sonovia is harnessing the power of ultrasonic cavitation jet-streams to impregnate textiles with color. Like “chemistry guns”, they call it, the technology works to generate cavitation bubbles that implode and generate 1,000 meter/sec jet-streams.
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The machine is called Sonofix, manufactured and supplied by their partners at Bruckner Trockentechnik GmbH. Sonovia affirms this machinery to have breakthrough durability and performance, non-toxic chemistry, and 100% agnostic to fiber type, as well as being cost competitive.
In addition, Sonovia has other partners all over the world, including companies all over Asia, and in Germany and Italy. The French Luxury group, Kering, which owns big brands such as Gucci and Saint Laurent even decided to integrate Sonovia’s technology into their production methods for the withseen future.
According to a study produced by Made2flow, a company that specializes in testing the environmental impacts the textile industry has, Sonovia’s technology reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 60%, 85% in water use, 99% in polluting wastewater, and 90% in land utilization, compared to the traditional industrial dyeing process of jeans.
Their technology has been tested in labs around the world, including Hohenstein, VisMederi Textyle, Microbe Investigations Switzerland (MIS), and Bureau Veritas.
Sonovia’s products include an innovative and sustainable means of indigo dyeing and odor-controlling technology. The current project D(y)enim, is the indigo dyeing system that uses indigo pigment dispersion to save water and be more eco-friendly.
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Unlike the traditional method, D(y)enim only includes 2 dye baths, no redox/oxidation dyeing mechanism, and results in no hydrosulfite waste. There is no need for merceization/scouring prep process before dyeing or need for multiple wash baths after the dyeing baths passage. In their recent study, the production of 1 pair of jeans using their technology saved 9.8% of water, equivalent to 160 days of drinking water per person on average.
In addition, the study concluded that 4% of GHG was saved, equivalent to 12 Km driven by an average private car. And lastly, it saved 1.4% of land use, equivalent to 249 grams of flour produced from equal land use.
As Sonovia continues to expand internationally, its mission is to serve as the face of sustainable textile production is not bleak. The Future of Sonovia looks propitious, especially as the climate crisis continues to demand change in our society. With the immense research proving Sonovia’s technology massively saves enormous amounts of water, CO2, and land-use, as well as being more cost-effective, companies around the world continue to be inspired to adopt Sonovia’s technology. The company has even been listed in the Tel Aviv stock exchange (TASE: SONO).
To learn more about Sonovia, check out their website.
