Would you wear a shirt made from beet sugar?
Virent is showing off what it calls “the world’s first 100 percent plant-based polyester shirts,” made from a chemical produced by the Madison biofuels company that’s derived from Minnesota sugar beets.
A key ingredient in polyester — one of the world’s most popular synthetic fibers — is paraxylene, and it’s been made exclusively from crude oil.
Virent’s BioFormPX paraxylene has no petroleum in it; it is derived solely from plants.