Development of a new scouring methodology for the textile industry

Abstract

Scouring is one of the most important processes in fabric formation in the textile industry. The main function of scouring is the removal of hydrophobic impurities in fabrics made out of natural fibers. Normally scouring is done after the sizes are removed in the desizing process. Three main scouring methods can be identified in the current textile industry. Alkaline scouring, Bio scouring, Solvent scouring are those three main methods with the alkaline scouring being the traditional and widely used method. In this research the drawbacks of the existing scouring methods have been discussed under three main aspects which are efficiency, economy and environmental friendliness. Neither of the above three scouring methods satisfy all these three aspects, at least up to a reasonable level. In order to achieve all these three objectives concurrently, development of a new process by combining existing methods was focused on in this research. This approach has not been followed in the past. Under this project, combining of Alkaline scouring with Bio scouring and Solvent scouring were separately considered as the approach of the research. Widely used Alkaline (NaOH) scouring method has been chosen as the reference method and aspects of this method were compared with experimental results. Recipes were developed according to general requirements of combining agents and tested with 100% cotton twill fabric and results were analyzed. Within all tested recipes the most suitable combination was finalized with necessary conditions in order to achieve better results in terms of efficiency, economic and environment friendliness compared to the reference methodology.