The LYCRA Company Announces Collaboration With Qore® to Use QIRA® for Next Generation Bio-derived LYCRA® Fiber at Scale
29.9.2022 03:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
The LYCRA Company, a global leader in developing innovative fiber and technology solutions for the textile and apparel industry, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Qore® to enable the world’s first large-scale commercial production of bio-derived spandex using QIRA®, the next generation 1,4-butanediol (BDO), as one of its main ingredients. This will result in 70% of the LYCRA® fiber content being derived from annually renewable feedstock. This change could potentially reduce the carbon footprint of LYCRA® fiber by up to 44%* versus equivalent product made from fossil-based resources, while maintaining the same high-quality performance parameters of traditional LYCRA® fiber.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220928005020/en/
The LYCRA Company signs an agreement with Qore® LLC to enable large-scale production of bio-derived spandex. Pictured – Julien Born, CEO of The LYCRA Company (left), and Jon Veldhouse, CEO of Qore® LLC (right), at The LYCRA Company’s headquarters in Wilmington, DE, USA. (Photo: Business Wire)
QIRA® will be produced at Cargill’s biotechnology campus and corn refining operation in Eddyville, Iowa. The facility, which is currently being built, will commence operations in 2024. The first renewable LYCRA® fiber made with QIRA® will be produced at The LYCRA Company’s Tuas, Singapore manufacturing site in 2024. The LYCRA Company is currently seeking commitments with brand and retail customers who are pursuing bio-derived solutions for their apparel.
“As part of our sustainability goals, we are committed to delivering products that support a more circular economy while helping our apparel and personal care customers reduce their footprint,” said Julien Born, CEO of The LYCRA Company. “We are especially pleased to collaborate with Qore®, a company that shares our vision for innovative, sustainable solutions. Their expertise in operating fermentation processes and understanding of the chemical value chains makes them the ideal partner to help develop a bio-derived LYCRA® fiber at commercial scale.”
“We are proud to partner with The LYCRA Company on bringing this sustainable material solution to the market. This collaboration demonstrates that QIRA® directly replaces conventional BDO and thus significantly improves the fiber’s sustainability profile,” said Jon Veldhouse, CEO of Qore®. “QIRA® is an innovative platform chemical that can be used in various applications across industries.”
The first generation of renewable LYCRA® fiber made with QIRA® will use feedstock from field corn grown by Iowa farmers and will enable a significant reduction in CO2 footprint. In addition to replacing a finite resource with an annually renewable one, another benefit for mills, brands and retailers is that there is no change in fiber performance, eliminating the need for any re-engineering of fabrics, patterns, or processes. Equivalent performance was demonstrated in 2014 when the world’s first bio-derived spandex was launched under the LYCRA® brand. The LYCRA Company has since been granted a patent for the process used to make renewable elastane from bio-derived BDO.
For additional information on renewable LYCRA® fiber, The LYCRA Company and Qore® invite interested parties to contact The LYCRA Company sales representatives.
*Estimate from Cradle-to-Gate Screening LCA for a representative LYCRA® fiber manufacturing facility, June 2022, prepared by Ramboll US Consulting, Inc.
About The LYCRA Company
The LYCRA Company innovates and produces fiber and technology solutions for the apparel and personal care industries. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, The LYCRA Company is recognized worldwide for its innovative products, technical expertise, sustainable solutions, and unmatched marketing support. The LYCRA Company owns leading consumer and trade brands: LYCRA®, LYCRA HyFit®, LYCRA® T400®, COOLMAX®, THERMOLITE®, ELASPAN®, SUPPLEX®, and TACTEL®. The LYCRA Company’s legacy stretches back to 1958 with the invention of the original spandex yarn, LYCRA® fiber. Today, The LYCRA Company focuses on adding value to its customers’ products by developing unique innovations designed to meet the consumer’s need for comfort and lasting performance. For more information, visit www.thelycracompany.com.
LYCRA® is a trademark of The LYCRA Company.
About Qore® LLC
Formed through a joint venture by Cargill and HELM, Qore® will help leading brands replace fossil-based chemistries with bio-derived intermediates. At the heart of the joint venture is the production of QIRA®, the next-generation bio-derived 1,4-butanediol (BDO). Made biologically through the fermentation of plant-based sugars, QIRA® can save up to 93% of greenhouse gas emissions when replacing today’s widely used chemical intermediates made from traditional fossil sources. Bio-derived QIRA® can be used the same way as its fossil counterpart but with significantly better environmental performance.
For more information, visit www.myqira.com.
Qore® and QIRA® are trademarks of Qore® LLC.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220928005020/en/
Contact information
Karie J. Ford karie.j.ford@Lycra.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Grafana Labs Brings Faster Full-text Search and Smarter Data Optimization to Grafana Cloud at ObservabilityCON 202620.10.2026 20:00:00 EEST | Press release
Grafana Labs, the company behind the open agentic observability cloud, today announced new releases at ObservabilityCON 2026 that help teams manage their telemetry in the AI era, finding the right log line in seconds and keeping only the telemetry worth paying for as AI workloads scale. Major query performance enhancements to Grafana Cloud Logs, built on technology from the company's Logline acquisition, are now generally available, and Adaptive Logs Archive is in public preview. AI is massively increasing telemetry volumes. Coding agents are turning everyone into a developer, so more software is being built, faster, and all of it needs to be watched. The agents add to the load too, since every agent call and tool call emits its own telemetry. Left alone, observability costs grow with every new workload, which makes cost and query optimization non-negotiable for running AI at scale. In the 2026 State of Observability Report, also released this week by Grafana Labs and ETR, a Futurum co
Grafana Labs Charts the Path to Agentic Operations with Watchers, Pages, and Agent Observability at ObservabilityCON 202620.10.2026 20:00:00 EEST | Press release
Grafana Labs, the company behind the open agentic observability cloud, today announced new releases at ObservabilityCON 2026 that move Grafana Cloud towards agentic operations, including the general availability of Agent Observability with OpenTelemetry support and of Assistant Watchers, and previews of Grafana Pages and Grafana Managed Sandboxes. As AI moves into production, teams face two connected challenges: using agents to operate their systems and understanding the behavior of the agents themselves. In the 2026 State of Observability Report, also released this week by Grafana Labs and ETR, a Futurum company, 68% of the 300 IT and engineering leaders surveyed have moved AI for observability past investigation into pilots or production. But confidence depends on the task and readiness varies: 85% report comfort with read-only investigation, compared to 52% for full autonomous remediation. Grafana Labs is building toward a platform with agents that act, allowing each organization to
Nissan Technical Centre Europe Adopts Sonatus Fastlane™ Platform to Accelerate Vehicle Test and Validation20.10.2026 19:37:00 EEST | Press release
Following a successful proof of concept and ongoing engineering development over the past 12 months, Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE), Nissan’s primary R&D hub for its global regions, is expanding its use of the Sonatus® Fastlane™ Platform across its pre-start-of-production (SOP) validation workflow. The platform’s event-driven data collection and root-cause analysis have reduced the time NTCE engineers spend investigating vehicle software issues from two weeks to two days. NTCE plans to make the platform a standard part of validating future vehicle programs, including upcoming models such as the Nissan JUKE. With the Fastlane Platform, engineers have the data they need from the moment a fault occurs. Teams deploy targeted data-collection policies from the cloud, and capture begins automatically when a defined event is detected. Fastlane Insight then correlates that data with NTCE’s specifications, CAN maps, diagnostic databases, and issue history to point engineers to the most li
FlightSafety International and Honda Aircraft Company Partner to Offer New Course to HA-420 Pilots20.10.2026 19:00:00 EEST | Press release
FlightSafety International Inc. (FSI), the global leader in aviation training and simulation technology, today announced an expansion of its longstanding partnership with Honda Aircraft Company to provide a new Runway Operations Mastery course for HA-420 Elite and Elite II pilots. Developed in collaboration with Honda Aircraft Company, the immersive training course focuses on strengthening pilot proficiency to support safer operations. The new voluntary offering reflects the companies’ shared commitment to advancing aviation safety through specialized training. “For more than 75 years, FlightSafety’s mission has been to advance aviation safety through training that addresses real-world challenges pilots face,” said Ben Carter, Executive Vice President, Learning Center Operations, FlightSafety International. “This new course reflects our ongoing commitment to working with our OEM partners to deliver specialized training that reinforces critical skills to support more confident decision-
TRU Simulation introduces first Cessna Grand Caravan EX Flight Training Device on the Veris platform20.10.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
TRU Simulation + Training Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, and an affiliate of Textron Aviation Inc., announced today the introduction of its Cessna Grand Caravan EX Veris Virtual Reality Flight Training Device (FTD), expanding the Veris product line to support one of the aviation industry's most versatile and widely utilized aircraft platforms. The announcement marks the first Caravan-configured training device offered within TRU Simulation's portfolio and reflects the company's continued investment in immersive aviation training technologies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261020834162/en/ TRU Simulation introduces first Cessna Grand Caravan EX Flight Training Device on the Veris platform "The Veris platform was created to make high-fidelity simulation accessible to more operators and training organizations, helping to meet the growing need for efficient pilot training and proficiency development ac
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom