A revolution in colour
A matter of chemistry
SwitchDye is not simply a change of colour, it redesigns the system from the ground up.
Breaking free.
SwitchDye rewrites the rules: cleaner chemistry, cleaner water, and vibrant colour. This isn’t an upgrade. It’s a revolution.
Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air, Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Built by chemists. Designed for dyehouses. Backed by heritage.
Developed in Leeds, with the University's heritage groundbreaking colour science and discovery of carbonation of water by Joseph Priestley. Learn more about how these ideas were combined to revolutionise the textile industry.
Sustainability does not mean compromise
Designed to integrate with existing dyeing equipment and supply chains. Designed to deliver the colour and fastness performance expected from disperse dyes.
Sustainable
SwitchDye delivers auxiliary free piece dyeing of polyester, leading to reductions in chemical intensity, water pollution, and energy usage.
Dependable
SwitchDye is designed for straightforward integration into existing dyehouse operations, while delivering the performance you expect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does anything need to change?
Most polyester and synthetic textiles are dyed using a method called disperse dyeing. This process relies on large amounts of additional chemicals, called auxiliaries, to help colour stick to the fabric. For every part of dye, you need up to nine parts of auxiliaries.
With polyester now making up 59% of global textile production, this creates enormous pressure on water treatment systems, and when disposed of incorrectly, it pollutes rivers and ecosystems. As awareness grows around water quality and security, it’s clear the textile industry must change to become truly sustainable.
How does SwitchDye work?
SwitchDye removes the need for dyeing auxilliaries through a clever piece of chemistry. SwitchDyes are designed to interact with CO₂, which allows the dye to move from the water into the fabric when heated. In practice, it’s as simple as mixing the dye with fizzy water or bubbling CO₂ through the solution, then using it in your dye bath as normal. No new machinery is required, only the addition of CO₂ at the preparation stage.
This approach removes up to 90% of the chemicals used in dyeing while delivering vibrant colours and strong textile performance. It also replaces the hazardous reductive clearing step (used for dark shades) with a simpler acid-clearing process, achieving effective clearing while avoiding the reducing agents and associated by-products of conventional reductive clearing.
Bonus FAQ: Isn't CO₂ bad for the environment?
SwitchDye uses only tiny amounts. In fact, the CO₂ in a single can of soft drink is enough to dye 13 t-shirts!
What textiles can you dye and will I need any new equipment?
Our mission is to create maximum impact, as quickly as possible. The underlying technology has been successfully demonstrated on polyester, nylon, elastane, acrylic, PLA, and blends. We aim to replace the status quo with all of these fibres but our current focus is polyester. To make the biggest impact we need to tackle the largest issues, and polyester now makes up 59% of global textile production and has the largest impact.
SwitchDye runs on standard dyeing equipment. Most of our development was carried out on jet and pyrotech dyeing machines, with successful demonstrations on package-dyeing equipment too. The key change required is the addition of CO₂ during preparation, and you can cut chemical use by up to 90% in your existing machines.
What colours can you produce?
SwitchDye is built on proven dye molecules, known as chromophores, enhanced with our revolutionary Switch group. This has enabled the full colour spectrum in laboratory conditions, with our pilot scale colours soon being released.
With SwitchDye, sustainability doesn’t mean compromise. Through better chemistry, we can protect the environment while keeping the colours we love.