REDEFINING TEXTILES WITH TREE-FREE FIBRES
When Lelia Lawson looked at the textile industry, she saw more than rising demand, she saw a sustainability gap. Global fibre needs are increasing, but cotton and forest-based fibres can’t scale without significant environmental trade-offs.
She teamed up with Wade Chute and Ken Barker, whose collaboration nearly 20 years ago produced the first lyocell fibre from hemp bast. Together, they founded Zylotex, a Canadian company transforming agricultural residues. Starting with hemp byproducts from food and oilseed production into high-performance regenerated cellulose fibres. By using low-value byproducts instead of competing with food crops or forests, Zylotex is helping build a more resilient, domestic fibre supply chain.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Rather than forcing hemp into legacy cotton or pulp systems, Zylotex designs its pulping and fibre process around the properties of the feedstock itself. The result is tree-free lyocell fibres suited for technical applications like nonwovens, geotextiles, and composites with scalability and commercial viability in mind.
MOMENTUM & WHAT’S NEXT
2025 marked a breakthrough year. Zylotex demonstrated technical viability, advanced to pilot-scale production, and secured non-dilutive funding from Alberta Innovates and Edmonton Unlimited. The company also established strategic partnerships, including off-take agreements totalling 1,800 tonnes annually.
Next: scaling pulping and fibre production, advancing commercial readiness through toll manufacturing, deepening collaboration with the University of Alberta, and raising matched private capital to enable larger-scale deployment.
“Most fibre innovations try to fit new materials into old systems. We start with the material itself and design everything around it — that’s what makes Zylotex different.”
— Lelia Lawson, Co-Founder & CTO