British start-up Alchemie Technology, which has developed an environmentally friendly textile dyeing machine, is seeking a partner in China to make inroads into the world’s largest producer of textiles.

The waterless dyeing machine, similar to an inkjet printer, costs between US$1.2 million and US$1.5 million, and uses 95% less water and 85% less energy than traditional methods, said Alan Hudd, the director and founder of the Cambridge, UK-based company, backed by Sweden’s H&M.

The conventional way to dye one tonne of polyester fabric generates over 30 tonnes of wastewater, which needs expensive treatment facilities to prevent contaminating the environment, he said.

Alchemie’s technology is akin to inkjet printing, based on inspiration that struck Hudd during a business trip six years ago to Taizhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. A visit to a dye factory made him realize that there was an urgent need to find a more sustainable way to dye textiles.

Hudd added that it was very clear that the industry had to change. The Chinese government was saying this can’t continue because the amount of contaminated wastewater was just too massive to ignore.

It took Alchemie seven years to find a digital inkjet technology suitable for textiles and build the machinery, he said. The know-how, initially developed in a laboratory in Hungary, has now been patented in the UK, Europe, the US and China.

Nearly 20% of global wastewater is produced by the fashion industry, which also emits about 10% of global carbon emissions, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Alchemie started marketing the machines this year and has sold nine units so far, Hudd said. The first two have been put into operation in Central America and Taiwan and the rest will be delivered to Türkiye, India, Taiwan, and Europe.