Mangesh D. Teli and Tesfaye Tolessa Adere
Conventional scouring processes of cotton are conducted at temperatures up to 100 °C in a highly alkaline medium (pH 10-12) with sodium hydroxide. This process is slowly being replaced by environmentally friendly and economical approach using enzymes which remove the non-cellulosic impurities without appreciable losses of strength. In this work, the paper presents the optimization of the bioscouring treatment on 100% cotton material using BEISOL PRO enzyme. For the bioscouring treatment a Box-Behnken Design experiment was used, with the independent variables such as enzyme concentration, treatment temperature and time. The test results such as weight loss, absorbency and tensile strength were also analyzed using the designed expert software 8.00 to predict the optimum process parameters. The optimum values were found to be enzyme concentration 2.5% on weight of fabric, temperature 75 oC and time 20 minute. Furthermore, the effects of bioscouring on bleaching were also investigated and compared with that of the conventionally scoured fabric. Based on the results of the study it can be understood that the bioscouring process performed much better as compared to conventional process and the process is eco-friendly and sustainable.
