Eco-friendly Production Methods in Textile Wet Processes

Abstract

Sustainable’, ‘economical’, and ‘eco-friendly’ production has recently become important issues in textile manufacturing processes. In the world, textile conventional production industry is one of the major industries which cause environmental pollutions. During textile wet process, great deals of wastes are leaved in air, soil and, especially water. Due to these wastes, all species in the ecosystem are negatively affected. In order to manufacture a ton of textile, approximately 230–270 tons water is used. After the textile production, the water is undertaken with heavy chemicals and this waste water is leaved in environment. In textile production industry, there are two efficient methods to decrease the environmental pollution. Constructed of large and highly effective effluent treatment plants is a method to reduce the amount of wastes. The other method is the use of natural raw materials and ecological production methods. Recently, researchers have been seeking for ecological, sustainable, and biodegradable natural raw materials alternatively synthetic raw materials. Especially, natural textile raw materials have been begun to use acceleratingly in compration with synthetic raw materials in textile industry. Furthermore, new natural fibers have been obtained from different source and the use of these fibers has searched in textile industry. In textile wet process, especially, waste water with heavy chemicals load is a major problem. In order to eliminate the negative effect of waste water, researchers have been searching for solutions. In literature, coating, microencapsulation, plasma applications, using of ultrasonic and microwave energy, using of supercritical carbon dioxide and ozone treatment are described as some of the eco-friendly process in textile wet industry. In this study, some eco-friendly production methods in textile wet industry were investigated, separately. Furthermore, the advantages of new production methods were searched.