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Abstract
The effects of scouring parameters on the scouring efficiency, including the weight ratio of de-sizing agent and fabric (5e80 g/g fabric),
temperature of de-sizing agent tank (60e90 C) and dipping time (2e8 s), were investigated. The results demonstrated that weight loss of sizing
agent was significantly observed only in the de-sizing agent tank particularly in the first de-sizing tank and was found to a small extent in water
tank. The optimum condition in the scouring machine was found at a de-sizing agent to fabric ratio of 20 g/g fabric, with a temperature of the
first de-sizing agent tank of 80 C, a temperature of the second de-sizing agent tank of 90 C, and dipping time of fabric of 7 s. According to
these conditions, more than 89% of the sizing agent was eliminated and only 3.52 mg/g fabric of sizing agent remained in the scoured fabric
which was in an acceptable range for feeding to the down stream process known as dyeing process. Application of our results to actual textile
plant has shown that there is a cost reduction due to improved utilization of rinse water, chemicals and energy in the process and consequent
decreases in the generation of wastewater. Furthermore, the production capacity was increased from 30 m/min to 34.4 m/min.
Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Cleaner production; Scouring process; Nylon; Sizing agent; Textile industry
0959-6526/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.06.016
A. Tanapongpipat et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 16 (2008) 152e158 153
it was found that felting property and tensile strength of wool from the fabric surface. The second and third tanks, containing
fabrics treated by protease in reverse micellar system were chemical agent, were used to eliminate the sizing agent from
superior to those in aqueous media. The commercial enzyme the fabric structure. The weight ratio of de-sizing agent and
pectinase from Aspergillus niger (Pontypridd, Wales, UK) fabric is maintained constant at 40 g/g fabric. The operating
was used to scour raw knitted fabric cotton/polyester (50/ temperatures of both de-sizing agent tanks were maintained
50), 146 g/m2 [4]. It was found that the bioscouring process approximately at 80 C and 90 C, respectively. The last two
was very sensitive to the surfactant and the pH regulation tanks were the rinsing water tanks, which were utilized to
whereas temperature seems to be less important. Aly et al. wash the de-sizing agents on the fabric surface. The tempera-
[5] attempted to scour cotton fabrics made of Giza 70 and tures of both tanks were controlled at around 80 C and 60 C.
Giza 75 by using various enzymes including bioprip, cellu- The de-sizing agent used in the process was the liquid mixture
soft L and denilite enzymes. They demonstrated that the of NaOH, detergent, and chelating agent. The investigated fab-
scouring was affected by using either bioprip enzyme at ric was nylon with initial sizing agent content of 33.02 mg/g
60 C and pH 9 or cellusoft L enzyme at 50 C and pH 5 nylon. In each experiment, the amount of aqueous solution
for 60 min. Ossola and Galante [6] demonstrated that the in each tank was fixed at 1.8 l. The efficiency of the scouring
efficiency of the scouring process of the flax rove in the process was determined by using the weight loss of sizing
decreasing order of effectiveness was pectinase > xylanase ¼ agent per unit weight of fabric. High loss of sizing agent refers
galactomannanase ¼ protease > lipase laccase. The effect to the high efficiency of the scouring process.
of low temperature plasma treatment on the scouring of nat-
ural fabrics was also investigated [7]. The results demonstrated
that low temperature plasma treatment could increase the 3. Results and discussion
scouring rate of cotton and wool fabrics. Although the previous
results demonstrated that using various kinds of enzymes seems 3.1. Effect of de-sizing agent and water on the
to be effective to eliminate sizing agent in the fabric, applica- scouring efficiency
tion of such may not be practical in actual textile industry
due to their high production cost. Therefore, the processes The experiments in laboratory scale were preliminarily per-
optimization and modification are the alternative procedures formed to determine the effect of de-sizing agent and water on
to get the better scouring efficiency and environmentally the scouring efficiency by using the dipping time of 8 s, tem-
friendly as the CP concept. In this work, the effects of various perature of all tanks of 80 C, and weight ratio of de-sizing
parameters in the scouring machine were investigated. agent and fabric of 40 g/g fabric. The results as exhibited in
Fig. 2(a) showed that the significant weight loss of sizing
agent of approximately 18.49 mg/g fabric was obviously ob-
2. Experimental served in a de-sizing agent tank whereas only 0.5e2.3 mg/g
fabric of sizing agent was lost in water tanks. To confirm
The effects of various parameters including effect of de-siz- the effect of de-sizing agent on the weight loss of sizing agent,
ing agent and water, weight ratio of de-sizing agent and fabric similar experiment was carried out by changing the sequence
in the range of 5e80 g/g fabric, temperature of de-sizing agent of de-sizing agent and water tanks. The results plotted in
tanks (60e90 C), and dipping time (2e8 s) on the scouring Fig. 2(b) demonstrated that when the fabric was submerged
efficiency were first determined in the laboratory scale by us- in water from tank 1 to tank 3, only 0.5e1.2 mg/g fabric
ing the equipment emulated from the conventional scouring was lost in the process. When the fabric was consequently sub-
equipment of textile industry. Fig. 1 displays the conventional merged in the de-sizing agent tank, approximately 16.72 mg/g
configuration of the scouring equipments employed in the tex- fabric was lost from the fabric. These results confirm that only
tile industry. It generally consisted of two de-sizing agent de-sizing agent has strong influence on the weight loss of
tanks and three water tanks. The first tank, containing water, sizing agent whereas the water has not. From such results, it
was used to wet and clean some impurities such as dust demonstrates that only one rinsing water tank was adequate
(a) (b)
25 25
15 15
10 10
5 5
2.29
0.51 1.19 0.88
0.50 0.51 0.47 0.02 0.05
0 0
1 2 3 nk 4 5
k
4
# # # # #
an
a
#
#
k k k t k k
nt
tt
nk
nk
nk
e
en
ta
ta
ta
ta
r r r ag r r
ate ate ate ate ate
ag
er
er
er
er
g
at
at
at
at zin
g
W W W W W
in
W
-si
siz
De
e-
D
Fig. 2. Weight loss of sizing agent in de-sizing agent and water tanks.
in the process because it has no influence on the elimination of process in the actual textile plant as shown in Fig. 4, which
the sizing agent in the fabric as the chemical did. Many water demonstrates the relationship between the weight loss of de-
tanks lead to high amount of water consumption and high sizing agent as a function of parameters of the aqueous
quantity of wastewater generation. solution (temperature, pH, TSS, TDS and alkalinity) in both
The significance of both de-sizing agent tanks on the the chemical tanks. It can be seen that the parameters in the
weight loss of sizing agent was further investigated at a tem- first chemical tank was more fluctuant than that of the second
perature of 80 C, dipping time of 8 s and weight ratio of chemical tank. This fluctuation was due to the contamination
de-sizing agent and fabric of 20 g/g fabric. The results as dis- of the sizing agent in the aqueous solution. So, this behavior
played in Fig. 3 indicated that the weight loss of sizing agent can confirm the previous results (Fig. 3) in that the more siz-
was more significantly observed in the first de-sizing agent ing agent can be removed in the first de-sizing agent tank than
tank than that in the second de-sizing agent tank, namely, in the second tank. Although, the relationship between the
greater than 18 mg/g fabric of sizing agent was eliminated weight loss of sizing agent and temperature (Fig. 4(a)) and
in the first tank whereas approximately 0.91 mg/g fabric pH (Fig. 4 (b)) of the first de-sizing agent tank was not cer-
was dislodged in the second de-sizing agent tank. These re- tainly observed, the TSS, TDS, M-alkalinity and P-alkalinity
sults can be confirmed by the data collected from scouring showed the relationship with the weight loss of sizing agent.
Namely, high values of TSS, TDS, M-alkalinity and P-alkalinity
led to high weight loss of sizing agent such as sample num-
25 bers 2, 19, and 20. Likewise low values of them conducted
small weight loss of sizing agent such as sample 18. This
tendency, however, was not clear for all samples because it
Weight loss of sizing agent (mg/g fabric)
(a) (b)
140 80 20 80
Tank 1 18 Tank 1
70 70
120 Tank 2 Tank 2
16
50 50
12
80
pH
40 10 40
60 8 30
30
6
40 20
20 4
20 10
10 2
0 0
0 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Sample number
Sample number
(c) (d)
350 80 20,000 80
Tank 1 Tank 1
300 70 70
Tank 2 Tank 2
50 50
200
40 10,000 40
150
30 30
100
20 5,000 20
50 10 10
0 0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Sample number Sample number
(e) (f) 8 80
8 80
Tank 1 Tank 1
70 70
Tank 2 Tank 2
Weight loss (mg/g fabric)
P-alkalinity (mg/l)
50 50
4 40 4 40
30 30
2 20 2 20
10 10
0 0 0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Sample number Sample number
Fig. 4. Physical properties of aqueous solution in the chemical tanks of the scouring process of textile industry and weight loss of sizing agent.
observed when the ratio of de-sizing agent and fabric increased agent to fabric ratio from 14 to 20 g/g fabric. It increased
from 5 to 14 g/g fabric, namely, it slightly increased from from 18.2 mg/g fabric to 24.3 mg/g fabric or approximately
16.7 mg/g fabric to 18.2 mg/g fabric or approximately 7e to 33.5%. Further increasing ratio of de-sizing agent to fabric
9%. However, the significant increase in the weight loss of to 80 g/g fabric cannot promote the increase of weight loss of
sizing agent was then found when increasing the de-sizing sizing agent in fabric. According to this study, it can be said
156 A. Tanapongpipat et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 16 (2008) 152e158
30
20 18.0 18.2
16.7
15
10
0
5 10 14 17 20 40 60 80
Chemical : Fabric (g/g fabric)
Fig. 5. Weight loss of sizing agent as a function of de-sizing agent to fabric ratio.
that the optimum de-sizing agent to fabric ratio was found at loss of sizing agent obtained from this condition increased
a ratio of 20 g/g fabric which is approximately 50% less than slightly from 18.5 mg/g fabric at 60 C to approximately
that used in actual textile process. 24.4 mg/g fabric at 80 C and afterwards it was rather
constant. On the other hand, the effect of temperature in the
3.3. Effect of temperature in de-sizing agent tanks second de-sizing agent tank was also studied in the range of
60e80 C by using the fixed temperature of the first chemical
In this part, the experimental set up was imitated from the tank. The results demonstrated in Fig. 6(b) referred that the
actual process consisting of three water tanks and two de- weight loss of sizing agent was constant in the range of
sizing agent tanks. The first water tank was used for wetting operating temperatures of 60e80 C, but it would increase
and cleaning the fabric from impurity such as dust. The next to approximately 29.5 mg/g fabric at 90 C. From this inves-
two tanks were de-sizing agent tanks containing de-sizing tigation, it can be said that optimum temperatures in the first
agent with weight ratio of 20 g/g fabric and the last two tanks and second de-sizing agent tanks were 80 C and 90 C,
containing water was used to eliminate the de-sizing agent on respectively.
fabric surface. The temperature in all water tanks was con-
trolled at 80 C and the temperature of both de-sizing agent 3.4. Effect of dipping time
tanks was varied in the range of 60e90 C. Fig. 6(a) demon-
strates the effect of temperature in the first chemical tank in The dipping time indicates the time that the fabric is sub-
the range of 60e90 C by using constant temperature of the merged in the solution. The shorter dipping time means the
second chemical tank (80 C). It showed that the weight rapid velocity of fabric fed into the scouring machine.
(a) (b)
35 35
Weight loss (mg sizing agent/g fabric)
Weight loss (mg sizing agent/g fabric)
29.5
30 30
24.4 25.1
23.9 24.0 24.6
25 25
21.3
18.5 20
20
15 15
10 10
5 5
0 0
60 70 80 90 60 70 80 90
Temperature in the 1st chemical tank (ºC) Temperature in the 2nd chemical tank (ºC)
Fig. 6. Weight loss of sizing agent as a function of temperature at (a) constant temperature of the second chemical tank of 80 C and (b) constant temperature of the
first chemical tank of 80 C.
A. Tanapongpipat et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 16 (2008) 152e158 157
35 Table 1
Comparison of conditions and characteristics of scoured fabric between this
29.07 29.50 work and actual textile plant
30 27.44
Weigh loss of sizing agent (mg/g fabric)