Scouring Of Raw Wool Research Articles

The application of biosurfactants for scouring wool

The first investigation of the use of biosurfactants for the scouring of raw wool is reported. A saponin, and a recently developed surface active oat extract, were evaluated at the laboratory scale using a first‐to‐be‐reported benchtop scouring system with simulated flowback. The levels of contaminants remaining on the wool after bioscouring, along with the wool colour, were compared with those of wool that had been laboratory‐scoured with a surfactant used in the commercial scouring of raw wool, namely a synthetic nine molar poly(oxyethylene)nonylphenyl (NPEO). Both biosurfactants can be extracted from land‐based renewable crops. The saponin proved to be effective, producing low levels of residual contaminants on the wool, and colours that were not statistically different to those of wool scoured with NPEO. The oat extract was considerably less effective than the saponin, both in terms of colour and residual contaminant level. This study demonstrated the significant potential of biosurfactants in the scouring of the global greasy wool clip, which now comprises two billion kg per annum.

Ultrasonic scouring as a pretreatment of wool and its application in low-temperature dyeing

Ultrasonic technology has shown the potential to reduce the cost and environmental impact of textile wet processing. This work investigates the effects of ultrasonic irradiation as a pretreatment on wool and its application in low-temperature dyeing. A significant increase in dye uptake and color strength was observed on the fabric ultrasonically pretreated at 40 kHz, followed by that at 80 kHz and the conventionally treated sample, in both acid dyeing and reactive dyeing. This could be due to the changes of the fiber surface structure and modification of the chemical structure in the cell membrane complex as a result of ultrasonic pretreatment. In acid dyeing, a 20% increase in dye uptake was achieved at 70℃ upon applying ultrasonic pretreatment at 40 kHz. With the assistance of a leveling agent, 80% dye uptake of the fabric treated with ultrasonics at 40 kHz was measured at 70℃ in reactive dyeing. Ultrasonic pretreatment can be applied in raw wool scouring and fabric scouring to achieve an efficient dye uptake, and these are also discussed in this paper.

工业脂肪酶在洗毛中的应用

将工业脂肪酶应用于原毛洗毛，通过单因素实验探究了酶用量、温度、pH值、时间及浴比等因素对洗净毛含脂率的影响。获得合适的洗毛工艺参数为：酶用量在0.5%左右，pH值在8.0左右，浴比1:40左右，温度在60℃左右，时间2 h左右。还筛选出合适的洗毛促进剂与工业脂肪酶进行复配，以改善洗毛效果，工业脂肪酶与促进剂HM A-474B的最佳配比为1:2，对于以该比例配制的酶制剂，洗毛时的最佳用量在0.1 g/L左右。 Industrial lipase was applied in raw wool scouring. The effects of many factors, such as enzyme dosage, temperature, pH, time and bath ratio, on the fat content of the scoured wool were investi-gated. The suitable parameters were obtained, including enzyme dosage 0.5%, pH 8.0, bath ratio 1:40, temperature 60˚C and time about 2 h. In order to improve the scouring effect, a suitable scouring accelerator, HM A-474B, was selected and compounded with the industrial lipase. It’s observed that the best ratio of lipase to HM A-474B was 1:2, and the optimum amount of this en-zyme synergist in scouring was about 0.1 g/L.

A study on the usability of ultrasound in scouring of raw wool

Abstract Wool is an outstanding, multifunctional natural fiber. Its physical and chemical structure makes it valuable since the ancient era of the humanity. However, preparing wool for end use is difficult and complicated, so it needs intensive care on every production step. Its treatment steps start while wool is on fleece form. Among those processes, scouring of raw wool fibers is a strenuous work. Besides this, it is the first step can influence the destiny of the wool for subsequent usages. As it is known, raw wool fleece includes contaminations which can weigh the half or more of the raw wool. Scouring process was managed firstly generally to terminate those impurities. In this study, the effect of ultrasound waves during scouring of raw wool fibers was examined. For this aim wool fleece was scoured consecutively in five washing steps with and without ultrasound. It was found that after third washing step in consecutively ultrasonic washing process, nearly same results provided by the five stepped non-ultrasonic washing regime. Addition to this, the fleece was also scoured separately in different temperatures with only water and with chemicals. Especially the washings at 50 °C with ultrasound for 30 min in separate washing regimes was found as an alternative for the non-ultrasonic consecutively washings. On the other hand with the washings at 35 °C with only water via ultrasound has shown interesting results too. In general it can be told that application of ultrasound in scouring processes provided improvements in washing efficiency. In other words, addition the ultrasound to scouring processes caused better whiteness degrees and removal of dirties.

The Development of a Bio-Scouring Process for Raw Wool Using Protease

The use of protease in the raw wool scouring process was investigated. Both native protease and an enlarged protease prepared by chemical modification were used. It was demonstrated that enzymatic treatment with protease in the scouring process (bio-scouring) can achieve cleaning of the fibre and modification of the cuticle layer leading to shrink-resistance. A reduction of lipid content was found and led to an improvement in dyeability of the fibre.

Enzyme Assisted Ultrasound Scouring of Raw Wool Fibres

Scouring of raw wool is a chemical treatment that needs a high amount of detergents, alkalis and water. Effluents produced by this treatment are extremely polluted with chemicals and impurities washed out from the fibers. It is well known that the ultrasound washing can remove effectively different substances from the textile surfaces even without surfactants due to the cavitations occurring at certain parameters of the ultrasound field. On the other side water treatments of wool combined with mechanical agitation provoked felting which can impair the quality of wool materials. Felting itself depends not only on the parameters of water treatments but also on the structure of wool cuticle. Partial hydrolysis of the cuticle with some proteases can decrease considerably the wool felting. The aim of this work is to study the possibility of applying the ultrasound at the process of raw wool scouring and the influence of proteases on the felting properties of wool at these conditions. It has been found out that ultrasound environment applied does not impair the specific activity of enzyme auxiliaries used and leads to increasing of their effect on the surface of wool fibers. Thus the scouring process studied could be used for developing of a technology producing lower amount and less polluted effluents.

Biotechnological treatment of effluent from the combined enzymatic-ultrasound scouring of raw wool

New eco-labels for textile products and demands to wastewater discharges are forcing wool scouring processes to reuse wastewater and to search for more efficient and environmental friendly methods of processing. This challenge has prompted intensive research in new advanced treatment technologies. Due to the high level of detergent usage, the most widely used treatment of wool scouring effluent (WSE) is anaerobic. As the pressure to use more environmentally acceptable treatment methods increases there is the need to study alternative, biologically efficient treatment systems for WSE. This work aims at studying the influence of the combined enzymatic-ultrasound scouring of raw wool fibers on the effectiveness of the anaerobic treatment of effluents from this processing. Experiments carried out combined enzyme and ultrasound scouring of wool followed by treatment of effluents obtained. Aerobic and anaerobic treatments of these effluents were performed using a special laboratory reactor. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) of effluents from different scouring processes were defined. The results of this study indicate that the anaerobic biological and chemical treatments of WSE treated by combined enzymatic-ultrasound scouring is a promising alternative technology from the point of view of reducing the wastewater pollution and the effective cleaning of effluents coming out from this process.

Complexing agents in raw wool scouring

Complexing agents in raw wool scouring

Removal of wool wax, nonylphenol ethoxylates and pesticide residues from wool scour effluent

The aqueous scouring of raw wool produces a highly polluting effluent that primarily contains emulsified wool wax, together with high levels of nonionic detergents and trace levels of various agricultural pesticides. The SIROLAN CF chemical flocculation process transferred over 95% of the wool wax and detergent and greater than 98% of the pesticide residues from the wastewater stream to a spadeable sludge that was used as a starting material to produce a high quality compost. During the composting process the nonionic detergents and organophosphorus pesticide residues were degraded to below detectable levels while the pyrethroid pesticides, cypermethrin and cyhalothrin, together with the organochlorine pesticide, lindane were degraded to below 15% of their initial levels.

Degradation of Nonylphenol Ethoxylates during the Composting of Sludges from Wool Scour Effluents

The aqueous scouring of raw wool produces an effluent that typically has a pollution load of at least 10 times that of domestic sewerage. The bulk of these pollutants may be removed by the SIROLAN-CF chemical flocculation process to produce a clear effluent and a sludge rich in wool wax. This sludge also contains practically all of the wool scouring detergent initially present in the untreated effluent. As the most commonly used detergents for this purpose, nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE), are toxic to the environment, their fate must be carefully evaluated when disposal options for these sludges are considered. This paper examines the fate of NPE and the metabolites produced during the composting of a mixture of these sludges and municipal greenwaste. Over 14 weeks the NPE residues were decreased by >96%. The principal degradation pathway involved the oxidative hydrolytic shortening of the poly(ethylene oxide) chain of the hydrophile to produce low levels of the biorefractory metabolites nonylphenol (NP), ...

Industrial Application of Formed-in-Place Membrane Ultrafiltration and Automated Membrane-Forming in the Treatment and Recycle of Rinse-Water during the Scouring of Raw Wool

Fresh water consumption in the scouring of raw wool at a Mill in South Africa has been dramatically reduced by a combination of two factors, namely the purification and recycling of some of the wash water for reuse during rinsing, and the recycle of water from the firm's biological degradation ponds for use in the earlier stages of wool washing and in neutralising. Purification is undertaken by means of formed-in-place hydrous zirconium (IV) oxide membranes which are deposited automatically on porous sintered stainless steel supports. While about the same total quantity of water is used to wash the wool as traditionally, fresh water consumption on selected washlines has been reduced by approximately half.

MICROEHULSIONS IN RAW WOOL SCOURING

ABSTRACT A laboratory study on the efficiency of microemulsions to remove raw wool contaminants at ambient temperature is presented. Due to the characteristic properties of microemulsions, namely the ability to solubilize both water-soluble and oil-soluble compounds, it could be expected that they may play an important role in raw wool scouring. Microemulsions of ternary water/technical grade nonionic surfactant/hydrocarbon systems have been chosen and appropriate microemulsion compositions have been selected according to phase diagram determinations. Microemulsion efficiency has been evaluated by whiteness values, percentage of solvent extractables and optical microscopy of scoured wool. The results obtained have shown that water soluble (suint) as well as solvent soluble (grease) contaminants and probably Proteinaceous contaminant layer were efficiently removed from raw wool scoured in microemulsion media at ambient temperature.

A New Concept in the Control of Liquor Quality in Raw-wool Scouring

A new concept in the control of liquor quality in wool scouring is described, in which the total-solids content of the liquor in the main scouring bowl is maintained at a constant preset value. This is achieved indirectly by sensing the relative density of the liquor and by obtaining positive feedback from the amount being discharged to drain. Flow rates are controlled by regulating the speed of the relevant pump monitors instead of by the more conventional method involving the use of control valves of various kinds.

Characterization of Proteinaceous Contaminants Extracted from Merino Raw Wool

This study introduces an isolation method that involves the separation of insoluble and soluble contaminants on raw wool. The contents of inorganic and organic components as well as their removal during different extraction steps are discussed, and an attempt is made to determine the most likely origin of the protein components. These investigations are of practical interest concerning optimal raw wool scouring conditions, especially with regard to the color of scoured wool and waste water treatment.

The Function of the Individual Bowls in Raw-wool Scouring

(1983). The Function of the Individual Bowls in Raw-wool Scouring. The Journal of The Textile Institute: Vol. 74, No. 3, pp. 148-149.

The Effects of Operating Variables in Raw-wool Scouring

The Effects of Operating Variables in Raw-wool Scouring

The Effect of the Bowl Volume in Raw-wool Scouring

The Effect of the Bowl Volume in Raw-wool Scouring

The Effect of the Bowl Volume in Raw-wool Scouring

The Effect of the Bowl Volume in Raw-wool Scouring

9—A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF EQUILIBRIUM CONDITIONS IN THE CONTINUOUS SCOURING OF RAW WOOL

A mathematical analysis of the conditions that would prevail at equilibrium in raw-wool scouring is presented, in which the components of the scour liquor are considered individually in each of three bowls. The analysis is used to predict the effect of effluent treatment by ultrafiltration if the ultrafiltrate were returned to the scour. The approach to equilibrium is dynamically modelled on an analogue computer, and a description of this method is given.

24—THE EFFECT OF MECHANICAL ACTION ON THE SCOURING OF RAW WOOL

The effect of variations in the mechanical conditions on the scouring of raw wool was investigated with regard to detergent consumption and visual appraisal of the appearance of the scoured product. All factors apart from mechanical conditions were identical for each experiment. It was found that both rake and roller speeds could be increased considerably without adverse effect on the appearance of the scoured goods, or on detergent consumption. Relatively high rake and roller speeds combined with a high rate of feed gave the optimum running conditions for the plant used in the study.