In June 2017, Global Market Insights released a report on geotextile market size by material, application, region, price, market share and forecasts for 2017–2024, which stated that “positive application outlook in construction, agriculture, erosion control, and drainage should drive geotextile market size” globally. Moreover, a shift in consumer preferences to the use of biodegradable materials should drive product demand.
It suggested that the global nonwoven geotextile market should exceed US$8.5bn in sales by 2024, with increasing sales for drainage, filtration, separation and road construction needs, with chemical resistant and UV finish properties helping drive sales, too.
US sales alone would hit US$3bn by 2024, it added. Here, growth would be pushed by a predicted upsurge in construction projects coupled with pushes towards environmental sustainability, even taking account of the current Trump administration’s scepticism about environmental activism. Indeed, Trump’s US$1.3tn infrastructure plan to finance remediation projects, the current federal government is expected to drive more geotextile sales, regardless of its environmental stance. In the meantime, tired of waiting for federal money, US state legislatures have “taken matters into their own hands” and agreed to finance repairs on ageing transportation systems, further boosting geotextile sales, according to a US Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry report published last year (2017) covering 2017-2021. It noted how 24 states approved measures in 2016 supporting US$207bn in highway, bridge, port and transport spending over the next 40 years.
Additionally, in August this year, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the US Congress “to encourage research and deployment of innovative construction materials in transportation and water infrastructure projects nationwide”.
The Innovative Materials for America’s Growth and Infrastructure Newly Expanded (IMAGINE) Act would promote research into new materials and building techniques and “spur federal investment in vital bridge and water infrastructure projects that utilise innovative materials, prioritising coastal and rural projects”.
“American innovators have come up with materials with the potential to make our roads, bridges, water systems, and other important infrastructure far more resilient and safe,” said Sheldon Whitehouse, democratic senator, supporting the proposed law.
“Using these materials in our public works will pay off big for the communities that rely on them and for the American taxpayer.”
Jonathan Curry, managing director of the Minnesota-based Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA), says he senses “there’s a lot more energy in the market with a number of states having decided to take the funding of infrastructure into their own hands providing more opportunities for the geosynthetic industry.”
He says the nonwovens sector is eagerly awaiting the release of the promised US$1.3tn to kickstart the construction industry and provide opportunities for their applications to be used in exiting transportation schemes or new projects.
“When the federal investment comes, it will be great to clear the backlog off the books, but it takes a lot to get all of Congress, all senators and the President on the same page,” says Curry.
He indicated that nonwoven geotextiles can extend the life of a road from 20 to 40 years with less ongoing maintenance costs. “That’s a big thing and it’s a big positive for geosynthetics in North America,” he says, adding: “Everything for the industry is travelling in the right direction.”
Certainly, the US geotextile industry is preparing itself for new orders. Noah Nichols, executive director marketing and product development at Tennessee-based Propex, producing non-woven geotextiles for civil transportation and environment applications, says his company is working on the development of new separation stabilisation products, separating dirt from rocks in road building projects.
Nichols says a layer of geotex should always be used to put under the rock aggregates, so it does not infiltrate the dirt under heavy use, or when milling back the top surface of an existing road – there should be a fabric between the old coarse base road and new layer of asphalt or concrete.
Nichols pointed out that rock aggregate is a natural resource that is diminishing in availability and many of his company’s product materials use recycled plastics, reducing the amount of aggregate required in addition to reusing plastics such as polyester and polyethylene which are processed down into pellets to manufacture their fibres. The Propex asphalt interlayer range currently includes the Petromat 4598 fibre, made from 60-80% polypropylene and 20-40% recycled polyester, for instance.
Nichols said that when an application can be woven or non-woven, the typical breakdown is two thirds non-woven and one third woven. “We have seen a definite shift towards non-wovens,” he notes. “It’s a better technology and performance offering better filtration and drainage properties with greater uniformity.”
The INDA forecast agreed with manufacturers’ views, stating: “Geotextiles will continue to gain market share at the expense of more traditional building materials such as layers of soil and rock aggregates and poured concrete, as — along with many nonwoven fabrics — they offer better performance at a lower cost.” It highlighted additional cost savings due to the fact they tend to be easier to transport and install.
The report predicted an increase in the use of cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining – one of several pipe rehabilitation methods referred to as trenchless technologies. It relines the entire length of the pipe needing repairs with a tube of resin-impregnated nonwoven requiring little or no surface disruption.
CIPP liners are constructed of tubular layers of needle punched nonwoven polyester (and sometimes fibreglass) with an exterior epoxy resin coating, the report explained with a “catalysed thermosetting resin mixture impregnated into the nonwoven” meaning it adds flexible strength to the finished liner.
The CIPP liner is inverted or pulled into the damaged pipe then inflated by air pressure or by a water column to press the material against the host pipe wall. When fully inflated, steam, hot water, or UV light is used to cure the resin and form a tight-fitting, jointless and corrosion-resistant replacement pipe. After the cure is completed, the liner is slowly cooled to prevent shrinkage. Pipes as large as 2.8 metres in diameter can be rehabilitated.
“CIPP is gaining popularity, owing to its numerous benefits over the competing trenchless techniques,” said the report. “It gives a new life to the damaged pipelines. Growth is forecast to further strengthen through the forecast period (2016-2021) based on increasing spending by municipalities and utilities on rehabilitation and increasing awareness about the benefits.”
Meanwhile, an August 2017 report by Freedonia, Nonwovens in the US by Product and Market, 7th Edition, has forecast that “nonwovens used in roofing materials, house wrap, and geotextiles will benefit from strong growth in construction activities,” but indicated that “in a highly globalised industry, gains in [US-made] nonwovens sales are restrained by competition with the low-wage labour of developing countries such as China.”
In Europe, environmental concerns, maybe more than infrastructure investment are perhaps a more important driver of geotextile demand. Close to Salzburg, Austria, for instance, the A10 motorway, one of Europe's most important north-south connections, passes the small village of Zedernhaus. To minimise the exposure of the villagers to noise and dust, this busy autobahn has been encased for 1.5km, using geotextiles from Huesker Synthetic GmbH, a German company based in Gescher. The challenge was to seal and so protect the construction from water in the surrounding mountainous terrain. The solution was a geosynthetic double lining: first the clay liner Tectoseal Clay NA500+ pressed directly into the concrete as bedding for the primary seal made from 2 mm thick PE-HD plastic sealing membrane. Topped with a protective mat, FabriNet HF-E B200 has served as a base for 260,000 cubic metres of earth, shrubs and grass. ‘The installation is easy and efficient’, according to a Huesker note, and thus geotextiles were a ‘very economical solution’ to give around 1,200 people in Zedernhaus a quiet night’s sleep.
Geotextiles for protection, building stabilisation, as filters for controlled drainage or as mats to keep soil in place are a typical use for nonwoven geotextiles and also road works, according to EDANA, the Brussels-based international non-wovens industry association. Nonwovens are about 4,000 times lighter than gravel, for example, and if all new roads in the EU were built with nonwovens, it would add to savings of 6.8 million tonnes of CO2-equivalents, argued an EDANA note. Consequently, the environmental impact of products increasingly triggers innovation and new strategies, explained Matthew Tipper, business director at the Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute: “Rapid innovation in raw material research is driving the market away from oil-based synthetics and into biopolymers and natural products.”
Water, for example, is an increasingly precious natural resource, that is often threatened by oxygenated hydrocarbons from petrol or lubricants, seeping into groundwater from parking lots, dirt roads or porous cover sheets. TenCate Geosynthetics, based in the Austrian town of Linz, well known for its nonwoven TenCate Polyfelt and Bidim mats for filtering and drainage, has developed a novel system that combines the traditional use of nonwoven geotextiles with a special cleaning effect. TenCate GeoClean filters oxygenated hydrocarbons out of seepage water. A patent was filed last November (2017) to protect the use of new TenCate geosynthetics filters for road and railway earthworks, car parks, hydraulic structures, waste storage facilities, ponds, foundations and supports, dykes, tunnels, marine and coastal protection structures, building structures and landscaping.
Geotextiles can also protect against heavy rainfall thought to be more prevalent today because of climate change, risking soil erosion. Switzerland’s Lindner Suisse, based in Wattwil, is one geotextile company trying to combat this problem in as sustainable a manner as possible. It has been experimenting with wood wool since 2012 to meet the increasingly common procurement tenders that ask for sustainable anti-erosion solutions with a good environmental performance evaluation. Linder Suisse’s product Howolis, often produced in combination with jute, over time rots to compost leaving no trace.
“Innovation in geotextiles is a challenge, though,” says Gerhard Dietrich, head of marketing at nonwovens experts Beco-Bermüller & Co GmbH, in Nürnberg, Germany. “Most products are mature and were certified long ago”, if innovation is to be found, then mostly “special solutions” are needed, for example at very steep slopes, he notes.
One such niche demanding innovation is the need to secure precious artefacts under water. An example is in Switzerland’s Lake Zurich. There, 4,000-year-old stilt-houses have had to be protected from erosion caused by shipping. The solution was found by the Germany-based Naue GmbH, in cooperation with its Swiss partner Systec Bausysteme AG – a fibre-reinforced polypropylene composite with a sand-filling. The fibres keep the sand between two nonwoven mats in place and its high specific weight makes for rapid sinking and allows precise placement under water.
Innovations in the UK geotextile sector are also scarce – but when they come, they create market winning advances. Leeds-based GEOfabrics’ latest innovation came last year (2017) – CuTex – a permeable geo composite root barrier system consisting of a specially formulated copper sheet mechanically encapsulated between two high strength geotextiles.
Andrew Leech, head of technology & development at GEOfabrics, told Nonwovens Report International that, for example, it can protect against some plants, such as Japanese Knotweed, that have had a significant negative impact on the environment, pushing through asphalt, building foundations, cracks in concrete, retaining walls and even drains.
Leech explains that CuTex acts by safely releasing Cu2+ ions to inhibit root growth: “The copper ions create a localised zone of inhibition which when approached by root tips causes them to undergo a progressive collapse,” he says. “The copper acts as a signal layer that all plants avert their growth from.” Moreover, CuTex only releases minute quantities of the copper ion and is a safe, yet effective root growth blocking material.
This advance will help the company build on success that it has developed since launching Tracktex in 2008 – a multilayer composite with a unique microporous filter media protected by specially engineered protective nonwoven geotextiles. The product helps reduce railway maintenance costs, allowing liquids to pass through, while blocking clay fines. Without pressure, water cannot pass through the filter, therefore any underlying clay formation will, over time, dry out and have an improved modulus, he explains.
Britain has an extensive geotextiles sector. Wallasey-based Geotextile Membranes is one success story, with its Multitrack NW8 100gsm the most common of its non-woven geotextile membranes, it says in a note.
Indeed, “geomembranes have proven to be far more effective than traditional products such as concrete, asphalt and compacted clay offering a wide range of physical, mechanical and chemical resistance properties protecting our environment and water resources,” according to a Leicestershire-based distributor who works mainly in the sector of reinforcement. Such geosynthetic “containment systems are less susceptible to ground movement and are now considered the more economical and safest method to install in the majority of applications.”
Geosynthetics’ Duodrain Drainage Composite is one such product distributed by the company, for instance. Its granular fill consists of a “cuspated impermeable core or a polymer net, bonded to a nonwoven geotextile fabric, and/or geomembranes,” the company says.
