BlueOxy: An oxidative enzyme for blue denim dye production

Innovationssamarbejde (Erhvervsfyrtårnet for Biosolutions)

BlueOxy: An oxidative enzyme for blue denim dye production

Denim dyeing with indigo is a major contributor to the textile industry’s environmental impact. This project focuses on developing and testing an oxidative enzyme as part of an innovative fermentation-based biosolution for denim dye production, allowing up to 83% reduction in the environmental footprint.

Denim dyeing with indigo is among the biggest contributors to the textile industry’s environmental footprint. A new enzyme-based dye production process holds promising potential to address this challenge (Photo: iStock).

Indigo in the textile industry

Textile dyeing is resource-intensive, with indigo - the unique source of blue denim - being the main environmental culprit. Its production causes high CO2 emissions, pollutes soil and water, and poses health risks to workers.

In this project, NordicBlue ApS, FermHub Zealand, and the Technological Institute collaborate to identify the key factors and parameters necessary for efficient production of an oxidative enzyme oxidative enzyme used in an innovative fermentation-based biosolution for denim dye production.

Dye production using fermentation

Indican, the natural precursor to indigo, offers a greener alternative with three key advantages: it can be efficiently produced biologically, converted to indigo through mild treatment, and delivers the same iconic blue hue. However, bulk production of indican is not yet sufficient to meet the global demand of approximately 80,000 tons of indigo annually.

BlueOxy’s biosolution uses enzymes from various organisms to develop a sustainable indican production process. The oxidative enzyme is currently produced in E. coli using shake flasks, but scaling to stainless steel fermenters is necessary to optimize aeration and production efficiency. Successfully scaling this process could provide the textile industry with a sustainable alternative to traditional indigo dye.