Sedo Engineering brings a revolutionary change to the denim/jeans industry with their new Smart Indigo technology. Smart Indigo use electricity instead of chemicals to dye resulting in less CO2 fewer resources consumed. It’s the cleanest, cheapest and best way to use indigo.
Every year, more than 15 billion metres of denim fabric are produced worldwide. This requires tens of thousands of tonnes of indigo powder to dye the fabric blue. Sedo Engineering has developed a complex facility that can dye 25,000 pairs of jeans per day. Called Smart Indigo, it uses integrated electrolysis to produce the famous indigo blue without the use of chemicals, and therefore without contaminating the water ejected from the textile factories after dyeing. The system uses only indigo pigment, electricity, caustic soda and water. Several machines are already in operation, for example in China and Pakistan. Switzerland is thus paving the way for a more environmentally friendly textile industry. Smart Indigo technology protects the environment and people from exposure to the chemicals typically used in dye for jeans. The Smart Indigo dye is produced locally on jeans manufacturers’ production sites, with one single plant able to produce about one tonne of dye per day. The technology uses six times less energy than conventional processes and enables jeans manufacturers to reduce their carbon footprint by a factor of 10. Smart Indigo, a thoroughly Swiss concept, sees itself as a trailblazer for the entire jeans industry. This application of electrochemistry is an example of the huge potential this technology and its associated know-how might unlock for the water treatment sector.