Pastel

Project mission

The PASTEL project promotes the development of an innovative productive method based on a new natural dyeing process of natural fibers (mainly wool, silk, cotton and hemp) extracted from maize cobs, i.e. the residual waste coming from the cultivation of red corn. To reach that goal, the activities focus to a prior identification of the best maize varieties in order to perform an efficient pre-treatment and alcohol fermentation process that enables to obtain the maximum quantity of anthocyanins and tannins, used in the dyeing technique of natural fibers. Finally a Life Cylce Assestmnet will be implemented with the purpose of establishing environmental impacts associated to this innovative process.