Twenty-five years ago, Courtaulds UK was planning to start up the world’s first solvent-spun cellulose process to supply 25 tons per week of a new rayon fibre with impeccable environmental credentials.
Process development had started at the company’s Coventry Research laboratories in 1979 under the direction of Patrick White and had remained secret under the ‘Genesis’ codename until 1986.
In June that year the Courtaulds Fibres Viscose Division and Courtaulds Research joined forces at a press conference to reveal – without spelling it out as such – a long-range strategy to replace the chemically complex viscose route with a simple, pollution-free, physical cellulose dissolution route.
