Texas Tech’s Fibertect Selected As Top Innovation by Cotton Incorporated

The products are highlighted in short vignettes on Cotton Incorporated’s Cotton Today website.

In 2005, Seshadri Ramkumar and his team at the Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH) at Texas Tech leveraged the absorbent capabilities of cotton to create the Fibertect® wipe that can absorb and neutralize gases and liquids that might be used in chemical warfare.

“To be recognized by the U.S. cotton industry as one of seven inventions is humbling, as it showcases the practical use of cotton technology developed at Texas Tech,” Ramkumar said. “The need for decontamination wipes, such as the kind we’ve created here at TIEHH, were a top priority for the Department of Defense. Years ago, we began the research, developed a product and met a top national security issue. Now we’re finding even more uses for the material.”

The process to make Fibertect® has received a patent and has been validated for use as a low-cost decontamination wipe for the U.S. military. Also, the wipe’s qualities were re-engineered to create a better absorbent material to pick up the “chocolate mousse” oil slicks inundating Gulf Coast beaches following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Amit Kapoor is president of First Line Technology, which commercially distributes Fibertect® that is manufactured by Hobbs Bonded Fibers Inc. He said that unlike synthetic materials like polypropylene that are currently used in many oil containment booms, Fibertect® is made from environmentally friendly raw cotton and carbon.

“This summer, Fibertect® was taken to the empty beaches of Grand Isle, La., and then laid out on top of a blob of oil that had settled on the beach,” Kapoor said. “It worked very well in absorbing and containing the oil. First Line technology is really pleased to take the laboratory technology into marketplace. Fibertect® is a platform technology and is finding applications in military and oil spill situations.”

Kater Hake, vice president of agricultural and environmental research at Cotton Incorporated, said that cotton has been essentially a source of textile fiber for six millennia. However, creative organizations such as Texas Tech are evolving the use of cotton and, in the process, its future.

“At Cotton Incorporated, we define sustainability as practices that create an environmental, economic and societal benefit,” Hake said. “The developments of these organizations certainly address those three tiers of sustainability, and demonstrate the seemingly infinite uses for the cotton plant.”

To view Fibertect® and the other innovations highlighted by Cotton Incorporated, visit http://cottontoday.cottoninc.com/sustainability-multimedia/.

For more information on Fibertect® products from First Line Technology, visit www.firstlinetech.com.

To watch the segment on Fibertect®, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9azlcim0k2Y

Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu.

CONTACT: Seshadri Ramkumar, manager of the Nonwoven and Advanced Materials Laboratory, The Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University, (806) 445-1925, or s.ramkumar@ttu.edu; James Pruden, co-director of public relations, Cotton Incorporated,(212) 413-8306, or jpruden@cottoninc.com; Amit Kapoor, president, First Line Technology, (703) 995-7510 or akapoor@firstlinetech.com; Larry Hobbs, vice president of manufacturing Hobbs Bonded Fibers Inc., (254) 741-0040, or lhobbs@hobbsbondedfibers.com