PhD 2025 : Sustainable upcycling of cellulose-based textile waste using all-cellulose composite approach

Project description:
The global demand for textile products is steadily increasing. In addition, «fast fashion» trend decreases the lifetime of textiles. 75 million tons of textile are used, and only a few per cent of the overall textile waste flow is recycled.

Among all type of textiles, about 30% contain cellulose fibers, either alone or mixed with other types of matter. Only about 15% of textile are recycled,
and only about 1% is up-cycled mainly focused on spinning cellulose fibers.
New technologies and approaches are needed to offer other ways of waste textiles’ recycling and making high added-value materials. The PhD project is part of a large national program focused on recycling, in particular, on reduction of the environmental footprint of textiles.

The goal of the PhD project is to design and develop new materials for the upcycling of cellulose-based textiles using “all-cellulose composites” approach. Cellulose-based waste textiles involving cotton, flax, viscose, Tencel, polycotton will be used. New ways to produce textile-based materials of various properties, shapes and aesthetics, also using low environmental impact
processes, are expected as project outcome.
The work is at the frontier of polymer chemical physics and materials’ processing. It will involve the use of various techniques, including formulation, rheology, optical and electron microscopies, characterisation of solutions, blends and porous materials, 3D printing, understanding the kinetics of cellulose dissolution and its correlation with material properties.
The experimental work will be performed in CEMEF/Mines Paris-PSL. CEMEF is world leader in the development of biomass-based materials, in particular, based on cellulose.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this project.

• see more here : https://www.cemef.minesparis.psl.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/PhD_position_CellUp.pdf
• Apply on line :   https://applyfor.cemef.mines-paristech.fr/phd/

Keywords: textile, solutions, blends, composites, rheology, gels, 3D printing

CEMEF is a research lab. of MINES ParisTech I PSL University associated with CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS, UMR7635).

Overall, our missions are research and training in collaboration with industry.

Our research focuses specifically on materials and their transformation processes in the broadest sense. It extends additionally to other fields such as fluid mechanics, biomechanics or HPC for instance. On the other hand, our training programmes offer post-graduate courses related to our scientific fields of expertise. Furthermore, we are attentive to the scientific needs of industry and we set up research projects with industrial companies.

A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH LABORATORY

CEMEF studies the science of materials and forming processes. This twofold research theme is in fact at the origin of the creation of our research lab. Thus, from the outset, CEMEF has been interested in the analysis of manufacturing processes, i.e. it studies the entire chain consisting of the material / the process / the finished product .

Contact:

• tatiana.budtova@mines-paristech.fr

Annual gross salary: about 26 k€/year.

The position is available from October 2025.