ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH ON BIO-CATALYTIC PRE-TREATMENT PROCESSES OF COTTON

IPTB 2011/Milan/Italy

Presentation March 3, 2011

Gerrit Bouwhuis

Cotton

Annual production: 25 million ton

Most important natural textile fibre

Application:

Garments

Household

Safety

Technical

Cotton: personalization and protection

Goal of pre-treatment

Prepare cotton for dyeing/printing/finishing

Objective of preparation:

Removal of starch (desizing)

Removal of waxes and pectins (scouring)

Removal of natural colour (bleaching)

Removal of impurities as ash, salts etc. (washing)

Resulting in:

Even whiteness

Even and sufficient hydrophilic properties

Starting point for this work

2005 2007

Aim of this research

Design of a novel, environmentally improved, industrial cotton

pre-treatment process

Pre-requisites

No capital investment

Quality at least as good as conventional treatment

Full width treatment of the fabrics

Continuous treatment

Opportunities for industry

Development of a new innovative sustainable (bio)catalytic

pre-treatment process for cotton on industrial scale.

Keywords

Bio-catalytic process

Benign treatment

Water reduction 20% (EuropaBio 2003)

Energy reduction 20% (EuropaBio 2003)

Waste water reduction 40% (europaBio 2003)

Sustainability

Development steps

1. Organisation of the collaboration

2. Research of the enzymatic treatment step

3. Research of the bleaching treatment step

4. Installed base/mechanical energy

5. Design and implementation of the new process

Organization of the collaboration I

> 4 years < 2years < 1 year

Academic orexplorative

research

Innovative or

appliedresearch

Development

KNOW

LEDGE

TECHNO

LOGY

INFO PRODUCTPROCESS

Organization of the collaboration II

Know how institutes

University of Twente Academic research

Saxion University of Applied Science Applied Research

Industry

Royal TenCate Finisher

Vlisco/Gamma Holding Finisher

Tanatex Chemicals

Organization of the collaboration IIIAcademic orexplorative

research

Innovative or

appliedresearch

Development

KNOW

LEDGE

TECHNO

LOGY

INFO PRODUCTPROCESS

UTwente

Saxion

Tanatex

Textile industry

Research of the enzymatic treatment step

Starting point: The research of Agrawal

Development:

Enzyme cocktail containing

Amylase

Cutinase

Pectinase

Operating window:

pH 8, T 30 – 50°C

Performance

Desizing and hydrophilicity

Starting point: Research of Topalovic

Development

The use of the bleaching agents: activators (manganese catalyst

and NaOH)

Operating window:

Continuous and discontinuous

30-50°C process bleach and rinse temperature, pH 10,5

Performance:

Whiteness in CIE-lab

Research of the bleaching treatment step

Installed base/mechanical energy

Installed base for pad batch – hot bleach

Aspects of mass transfer

Textile substrate (stagnant and convective region)

Squeezing model

Mass transfer model

Adsorption limitation in textile pores

Design and implementation of the new process I

Conventional Desizing: Amylase

Scouring: NaOH (100°C rinse)

Bleaching: H2O2 and NaOH

Washing (100°C)

High water consumption

High temperature

New process (lab scale) Desizing: Amylase

Scouring: Pectinase and

cutinase (30°C rinse)

Bleaching: H2O2 and

MnTACN or reduced NaOH

Washing (40°C)

Reduced water consumption

Reduced temperature

Design and implementation of the new process II

Design and implementation of the new process III

* as measured in production

Conclusions

Low temperature rinsing after bio-scouring

Sufficient hydrophilicity

Sufficient pectin removal

Low temperature rinsing after bleaching

Whiteness to be improved

Reduced waste water pollution (38% reduction on COD)

Decrease in cost per kg fabric: € 0,08 (excl. effect of cost of chemicals)

Collaboration supports implementation of new processes

Bio-catalytic treatment is profitable!!

Thank you for your attention!!

Questions

Discussion