Projects

Re-FREAM Project

Care Applications® participates as a partner in the European project Re-FREAM, an innovative initiative funded by the H2020 (ICT) program that connects fashion, technology, and sustainability.

The project promotes collaboration between artists, designers, and technologists to explore new ways of creating fashion through advanced manufacturing and textile finishing technologies. Its aim is to open new frontiers in the design and production of garments, demonstrating how the union between art and science can transform the textile industry towards more innovative and sustainable models.

🔗 More information on the Re-FREAM website

🔗 See some of our developments with award-winning artists from the second call

Main Objectives of the Project

Re-FREAM is structured around six major challenges:

• Urban Manufacturing of Fashion – promoting new forms of decentralized urban fashion production.
• Collaboration between Artists and Scientists – fostering co-creation between artistic creativity and technological expertise.
• Directly Printed Fashion – developing garments with direct-on-textile printing.
• Electronics and Textiles – integrating electronic components into fabrics to create smart fashion.
• Additive Finishing of Garments – applying sustainable additive finishing technologies.
• Open-Innovation Platform – establishing an open innovation platform connecting designers, technologists, and researchers across Europe.

Impact and Ambition

The project aims to:

• Revolutionize how fashion is designed and manufactured, exploring 3D printing, flexible electronics, and additive finishing solutions.
• Reduce the environmental impact of traditional production processes.
• Generate an open innovation ecosystem where artists, technologists, and researchers collaborate to create new products, services, and business models.

With a duration of 36 months and the participation of multiple European partners, Re-FREAM constitutes a living innovation lab that brings together creativity, science, and sustainability.

Care Applications Collaborations within Re-FREAM

During the project, Care Applications® collaborated on four pioneering initiatives, providing its ECOFinish® micronebulization technology to develop sustainable dyeing and finishing solutions:

• Re-Manufacturing Waste – A New Kind of Blue (Tim van der Loo & Sandra Nicoline Nielsen)
• Transformation of textile waste into new non-woven recycled denim fabrics, finished using ECOFinish® to achieve water-free dyeing and treatments, contributing to circular production and gaining international recognition.
• Manufacturing Sensory Wellbeing – Neo Botanical Tailoring (Alexander Bello)
• Development of tailored garments dyed with natural plant-based dyes and infused with encapsulated essential oils applied with ECOFinish®. A collection that combines sustainability with sensory wellness.
• Manufacturing Transformation – Fragments Garments (Elisabeth Jayot)
• Creation of modular, customizable garments with seamless assembly systems. Care Applications provided on-demand atomized dyeing and sustainable finishing applied to textiles and 3D elements.
• Conscious Manufacturing – Leather for Vegetarians (Fabio Molinas)
• Application of recycled cork particles through ECOFinish®, generating innovative finishes such as Nanocork® — a vegan and sustainable alternative to traditional leather, with unique thermal and aesthetic properties.

Re-FREAM demonstrates how Care Applications® technology can be integrated into creative and international collaborative processes, driving a more innovative, sustainable, and responsible European fashion industry.

ELIIT Project – NANOCORK®

A New Beginning for Cork Waste

Every time a bottle of wine is opened, a small residue remains: the cork stopper. For years, this material had no clear purpose beyond limited recycling. Today, thanks to the NANOCORK® project, that same cork can be transformed into part of sustainable textiles—an alternative to leather with new design possibilities for garments, footwear, and accessories.

This project is the result of the collaboration between the design company Lebiu SRL (Sardinia) and the ecological textile finishing team at Care Applications (Alcoy, Alicante), within the European initiative ELIIT Project, led by AITEX and funded by the EU COSME program for SMEs.

The Challenge: Sustainable Fashion Without Sacrificing Style

The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world, consuming large amounts of water, chemicals, and energy. The goal of NANOCORK® was clear: to offer environmentally friendly garments with enhanced properties and finishes, leveraging the unique characteristics of cork.

Thanks to ECOFinish® atomization technology, cork waste can be applied to textiles without immersion baths and with minimal chemical and energy consumption, achieving average liquor ratios of 1:1. The result is an innovative textile finish, such as bio-denim, combining style, sustainability, and quality.

Technological Innovation

The key to NANOCORK® lies in the ability to apply a natural finish through controlled atomization. ECOFinish® turns water and finishing agents into a fine mist that spreads evenly across the material, ensuring reproducibility and precision.

This process:

• Drastically reduces water and energy consumption.

• Minimizes chemical usage.

• Generates no waste.

• Adapts to existing machinery.

There is currently no equivalent process available on the market.

Social and Economic Impact

NANOCORK® delivers not only environmental benefits, but also social and economic advantages:

• It offers a vegan and biodegradable alternative to leather.

• It responds to the demand of conscious consumers who value both the product and how it is made.

• It opens new revenue opportunities for the cork industry, promoting a circular economy.

• It contributes to local employment and supports population retention in rural areas.

The Role of Europe and COSME

The project was made possible thanks to the support of the COSME program (Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs) of the European Union, through the ELIIT initiative (European Light Industries Innovation and Technology).

This support, which included €70,000 in funding and specialized technical assistance, enabled:

• Care Applications to optimize ECOFinish® for cork application.

• Lebiu to install a prototype in its laboratory in Sardinia.

• Progress toward the commercialization of bio-denim and other Nanocork® fabrics.

Conclusion

NANOCORK® is a real example of how technological innovation and EU support are driving the transition toward circular, ethical, and sustainable fashion.

From the bottle to the runway, cork finds a new life in textiles.

🔗 More information available on the European Commission website.

GALACTICA Project – MergeProDye

Care Applications® is participating in the MergeProDye project, selected in the second call of the GALACTICA initiative, funded by H2020.

MergeProDye is an innovative project aiming to revolutionize textile dyeing and finishing processes by combining efficiency, sustainability, and adaptability to existing industrial equipment.

🔗 More information and project video

Project description

Textile finishing processes, especially dyeing, are among the most polluting in the industry. Care Applications focuses its innovation on garment dyeing and finishing processes, aiming to reduce water, energy, and chemical consumption.

Based on ECOFinish® and CLOSE-N® technologies, MergeProDye will develop a new accessory that can be installed on existing garment washing and dyeing machines, providing immediate benefits without the need to replace current machinery.

The ECOFinish® & CLOSE-N® system will enable:

• Dyeing garments using Reduce-type, which traditionally require large amounts of chemicals, through its atomization system.
• Controlling the reduction process by introducing nitrogen, creating an oxygen-free atmosphere that is reproducible and ensures high-quality results.
• Integrating the advantages of both technologies, combining ECOFinish®’s water and energy efficiency with the precision and control provided by the CLOSE-N® system.

Expected impact

The conventional bath process with a high liquor ratio L:R 1:10 is compared to the MergeProDye process, which operates with a low average liquor ratio of L:R 1:1, reducing both water and carbon footprint.

The MergeProDye device was developed and validated during the project, representing an innovation beyond the current state of the art. This system will allow the textile sector to move towards more sustainable and competitive processes by offering controlled, reproducible dyeing solutions that can be adapted to existing machinery, reducing environmental impact without compromising the quality of the final product.

IN TRANSIT Project – BIORE-DYE

Biotechnological innovation for a more sustainable fashion industry

Out of the 72 proposals submitted to the IN TRANSIT project call, funded by the European Commission through H2020, we are proud to announce that BIORE-DYE has been selected as one of the winning projects.

For 4 months, Care Applications® (Spain) and Vienna Textile Lab (Austria) combined their expertise to take on this innovative challenge, merging biotechnology and advanced textile processes to transform the way garments are dyed.

The challenge: rethinking textile dyeing

The main goal of BIORE-DYE is twofold:

• To optimize the application of dyes and pigments extracted from bacteria and fungi found in nature (air, water, soil).
• To develop an innovative technological solution by applying these pigments to garments using Care Applications®’ advanced equipment, based on the eco-friendly ECOFinish® atomization process.

The uniqueness of this project lies in the unprecedented combination of these two technologies. Separately, both microbial dyes and atomization technology already represent major advances for the textile industry. However, when integrated, they create a revolutionary system with estimated savings of up to 90% in water, 85% in energy, and 90% in wastewater compared to conventional methods.

Technological innovation

The BIORE-DYE process is built on two key pillars:

• Microbial pigments developed by VTL, providing new bio-based colors — blues, reds, yellows, and earth tones — as a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes. These pigments are produced through industrial bioprocesses that allow scalability, overcoming the limitations of plant- or animal-based dyes.
• ECOFinish® atomization technology, developed by Care Applications®, which applies products as microdroplets onto fabrics, ensuring precision, reproducibility, and a drastic reduction in water and chemical use.

What makes it truly innovative is that biological pigments are applied directly inside the machine without an immersion bath, ensuring a cleaner and safer working environment.

A challenge for the textile industry

Dyeing with microbial pigments presents significant technical challenges: solubility, viscosity, and overall behavior differ from conventional synthetic dyes. Adapting recipes, temperatures, and process parameters will be crucial to guarantee industrial quality and stability.

The project will start at TRL 6 (technology demonstrated in a relevant environment) with the goal of reaching TRL 8 (complete and validated system) by the end, following quality testing on different fabrics.

Environmental and social impact

The textile sector faces increasing regulatory restrictions and strong social pressure to offer more sustainable products. BIORE-DYE directly responds to these needs:

• It offers a safer alternative free of hazardous substances compared to synthetic dyes, aligned with European regulations such as REACH and circular textile strategies.
• It enables brands to access eco-conscious materials and processes, increasingly demanded by younger consumers aware of the climate crisis.
• It supports circular economy solutions by reducing water, chemical, and energy consumption and minimizing waste generation.
• It strengthens the competitiveness of innovative European SMEs through cross-border collaboration.

The role of IN TRANSIT and the European Commission

The support of IN TRANSIT and H2020 funding are essential to ensure the feasibility of this proposal, connecting the textile industry with modern biotechnology.

Thanks to this support, synergies are being created between VTL and Care Applications®, boosting scalability, expanding product offerings, and contributing to the development of new circular and sustainable business models across Europe.

Conclusion

BIORE-DYE demonstrates that combining biotechnology and textile atomization can redefine the dyeing industry, offering a sustainable, scalable, and high-quality alternative to current synthetic processes.

It represents a decisive step toward an innovative, circular, and planet-friendly fashion industry, aligned with new European regulations and the expectations of future consumers.

UP2CIRC – H SAVES H2O

Innovation for Viable and Efficient Water Use in the Textile Industry

The project H SAVES H2O – Innovative Solution for Advancing Viable and Efficient Water Use has been selected to receive funding under the European initiative Up2Circ 2025 – Large Scale Projects, a program that promotes the transition towards circular models in strategic sectors.

The Environmental Challenge

The textile industry faces a critical challenge: the high conductivity of wastewater generated during dyeing processes such as JET rope, yarn winding, or garment dyeing.

This environmental impact is mainly due to the use of saline products in dyes such as vat, sulphur, and indigo.

The magnitude of the problem is significant:

A typical dyeing plant can produce more than 135 million litres of wastewater annually with high conductivity, leading to both environmental and economic consequences.

The Goal of H SAVES H2O

The project aims to drastically reduce the generation of high-conductivity wastewater through two main lines of action:

• Integration of new technologies that eliminate conductivity from wastewater.
• Replacement of traditional salt-based auxiliaries with more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives.

With this approach, H SAVES H2O seeks to accelerate the transformation toward a circular, efficient textile industry with a reduced water footprint.

Care Applications Commitment

At Care Applications, sustainability and technological innovation are at the heart of every project. H SAVES H2O builds on previous developments such as CLOSE-N®, which has already demonstrated the ability to significantly reduce the use of chemicals in dyeing processes.

With this new initiative, we take another step toward a sustainable and internationally competitive textile model, aligned with the European Union’s goals in circular economy and green transition.

Acknowledgment of EU Funding

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the EU nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

S4Fashion Project – Sustainable Solutions for Fashion

Care Applications® is participating in the S4Fashion project, a European initiative co-funded by the COSME programme, which supports small and medium-sized enterprises in the development of circular and sustainable products, services, and business models for the fashion industry. The project’s mission is to support, connect, and empower transnational partnerships collaborating to create innovative solutions. Over its three-year duration, S4Fashion will generate new evidence-based knowledge on sustainability and circular economy, sharing it with the entire European fashion ecosystem.

Collaboration with Jeff Montes

Within S4Fashion, Care Applications® collaborated with designer Jeff Montes on an experimental pilot that combines zero-waste design, recycled materials, and sustainable dyeing processes. The work was based on three main pillars:

• Circular design: use of recycled sails, marine plastics (Sea Plastic Waste), RPET monofilament and multifilament, local fabrics, and modular digital patterns that minimize waste.
• Local and artisanal production: carried out between the Netherlands and Spain, combining innovative pattern-making, collaboration with textile workshops (Joyper), and handmade garment production.
• Sustainable dyeing with ECOFinish®: application of Care Applications®’ atomization technology to perform dyeing and finishing processes using minimal water and chemical products.

Fashion For Change – Transforming fashion towards sustainability

Fashion For Change is a European initiative funded by the European Union through the COSME programme, aimed at improving the competitiveness and environmental performance of SMEs, designers, and fashion startups in Europe.

The project provides the sector with a virtual knowledge library, an accelerator programme for sustainable fashion entrepreneurs, and a circular economy self-assessment tool designed to guide companies in their transition towards more sustainable and digital models.

Main objectives

• Promote sustainability in the fashion industry.
• Improve the environmental performance of companies and startups.
• Foster the competitiveness of designers and SMEs in the sector.
• Accelerate the transition towards a circular economy in the European textile industry.

Collaboration with Fabio Molinas – Nanocork® Project

Within the framework of Fashion For Change, Care Applications® collaborated with designer Fabio Molinas (Lebiu SRL) to scale up the Nanocork® project, a sustainable and vegan alternative to leather and conventional textile finishes.

The challenge was to reuse cork waste from the wine industry to create new fabrics and textile finishes that respect the environment. Thanks to ECOFinish® atomization technology, developed by Care Applications, it was possible to apply cork without immersion in washing machines, drastically reducing water, chemical, and energy consumption—without generating waste.

During the project, several industrial tests were carried out with clients already using ECOFinish® technology, including its upgrade for Nanocork® applications in Spain and Turkey, with successful results.

This finish, known as bio-denim or Nanocork®, opens the door to a new category of circular, biodegradable materials with high aesthetic performance for fashion, footwear, and accessories.

Impact and Innovation

• Pioneering dyeing and finishing technology: application without immersion and with minimal use of chemicals and energy.
• Circular and bio-based model: use of cork waste as the main raw material.
• Social and economic benefits: new income opportunities for the cork industry, local employment in rural areas, and alignment with the growing demand for ethical and sustainable fashion.
• Scalability: supported by the EU and the COSME programme, the project evolved from a demonstration level (TRL 6) to a fully qualified system (TRL 8), ready for industrial application.

Fashion For Change demonstrates how collaboration between designers, startups, and technology providers such as Care Applications® drives a greener, more competitive, and responsible European fashion industry.