Antai Textile's Dope-Dyed Acrylic Fiber Achieves 42% Carbon Reduction, Exceeding Industry Expectations; Three Decades of Dedication Forge a Green Textile Benchmark

In July in Zhangjiagang, the wind by the Yangtze River, carrying the late summer humidity and heat, blows into the office building of Antai Textile. Li Xiong, the Marketing Manager, has just put down an industry report. His fingertips glide over the title '12 Leading Enterprises Complete Layout of Dope-Dyed Acrylic Fiber Pilot Production Lines', and he looks up out the window—in the nearby production workshop, five silver-gray intelligent production lines are operating at a steady pace, with indigo, smoky gray, and ochre acrylic strips flowing along the conveyor belt, like solidified rainbows.

'Factory Director Huang, the newly released industry data shows that dope-dyeing technology can reduce carbon emissions in the dyeing and finishing process by 35% by 2025. Should we update the sign for the carbon reduction rate of our production line now?' Li Xiong dials the production department, and Huang Weidong's voice with a smile comes through the receiver: 'It's high time to change it! Last week, the third-party testing agency just released the results. For our dope-dyed acrylic strips, from melt coloring to finished product packaging, the carbon emissions in the entire process are 42% lower than traditional dyeing processes, exceeding industry expectations by 7 percentage points.'

Behind this conversation about 'carbon reduction' is Antai Textile's over three decades of industry dedication. Founded in Zhangjiagang in 1993, this textile enterprise started with a single acrylic strip spinning machine and has now grown into a hidden champion in the colored acrylic fiber field in East China—with an annual capacity of 12,000 tons of colored acrylic strips, 8,000 tons of acrylic yarn, and over 200 types of fancy yarns, earning the title of 'Jiangsu Provincial High-Tech Enterprise'. The 'dope-dyeing technology' that Li Xiong and Huang Weidong care so much about is the key move of this established enterprise in the green transformation race.

'Do you still remember the winter of 2020?' Huang Weidong's thoughts drift back five years. At that time, traditional dyed acrylic strips in the market were facing double pressure: on one hand, downstream clothing brands began to inquire about 'carbon footprints' and required suppliers to provide environmental certifications; on the other hand, the high energy consumption and high wastewater discharge in the dyeing and finishing process caused the enterprise's environmental protection costs to rise year by year. 'That day, Manager Li and I were staring at the dyeing vat in the workshop, watching the dark blue sewage flow into the treatment tank. Li Xiong suddenly said: "We can't keep running after the dyeing vat; we have to let the color come from the source."'

This sentence 'come from the source' became the starting point of Antai Textile's transformation. They invested 30% of their annual net profit to expand the R&D center on the basis of the original laboratory, invited dye chemistry experts from the College of Textiles of Donghua University, and formed a 'process tackling team' with the most senior老师傅们 (veteran craftsmen) in the production workshop. Huang Weidong remembers that just to debug the stability of black dope, the team worked for over three months: 'Traditional dyeing is "spin first, then dye", with color附着在 (adhering to) the fiber surface, which easily fades; dope-dyeing is "melt injection", where color masterbatch is uniformly mixed with acrylic raw materials before spinning, so the color grows with the fiber. But the dispersibility of black masterbatch is particularly difficult to control. At first, the spun strips always had "color spots", and customers rejected two batches of products.'

A turning point came in the spring of 2022. During an experiment, the tackling team adjusted the temperature gradient of the screw extruder, lowering the melting temperature of the black masterbatch from 230°C to 215°C, and added a trace amount of nano-dispersant—when the first roll of jet-black, uniform, and delicate acrylic strip was taken off the winding machine, applause erupted in the laboratory. 'That day, Li Xiong happened to bring customers for a visit. The person in charge of that Zhejiang outdoor clothing brand made a decision on the spot: "We'll use this! For our冲锋衣 (jacket) fabrics, we need this kind of fade-resistant and environmentally friendly black."' Huang Weidong笑着说 (smiles and says), and now this black dope-dyed acrylic strip has become Antai's 'star product', accounting for 25% of the company's colored acrylic strip sales.

Just last month, the patent authorization announcement of 'Preparation Method of Dope-Dyed Acrylic Black Fiber' by Hebei Aikerui Fiber Co., Ltd. made Li Xiong more determined in his direction: 'This shows that the industry has reached a consensus on the technical route. We achieved mass production half a year earlier than the patent application date. Now we stably supply four major color systems: red, blue, gray, and black. Even the most difficult light pink can achieve batch color difference ≤ Grade 1.5. Customers' designers say, "Finally, we don't have to sigh at the color cards anymore."'

Market feedback is confirming the value of this transformation. On Li Xiong's desk lies the latest order report: in the first half of the year, sales of colored acrylic strips increased by 40% year-on-year, of which the dope-dyed series accounted for 68%. 'There's a customer making maternal and infant home textiles. They used to use traditional dyed acrylic strips, which would slightly fade after three washes. Now with our dope-dyed acrylic strips, they remain bright after ten washes, and repurchase orders have directly tripled.' What excites him even more is the new customer demand: 'In the past, customers only asked "how much per ton"; now the first question is "Do you have a carbon footprint report? How much carbon reduction?" Last month, a listed company came to discuss cooperation. Just because our dope-dyed products can help their finished garments reduce carbon by 12%, they signed an annual framework agreement on the spot.'

In the workshop, Huang Weidong is leading technicians to inspect the newly arrived color masterbatch detector. 'This pilot production line was put into operation at the end of last year. Now it can produce 300 tons of new dope-dyed acrylic strips per month. Next, we will expand the color system to 50 types and develop composite products with high elasticity and antibacterial functions.' He points to the 'Green Factory' certification plaque on the wall, his tone filled with pride: 'Starting by riding the wave of the acrylic industry in 1993, and now transforming with the trend of green textiles, Antai's past three decades have relied on "being half a step ahead of the market".'

The setting sun shines through the workshop's glass windows, casting a warm glow on the flowing acrylic strips. Li Xiong looks at the jumping numbers on the report and remembers a comment from an expert at an industry forum last week: 'The future of the textile industry lies in the "green genes" of every fiber.' On the textile-rich land of Zhangjiagang, Antai Textile is using 30 years of persistence and innovation to weave a longer-term future for this 'green gene' among the warp and weft of acrylic fibers.