A sustainable and green process for scouring of cotton fabrics using xylano-pectinolytic synergism: switching from noxious chemicals to eco-friendly catalysts

Abstract

The objective of this research was to develop an appropriate, eco-friendly, cost-effective bioscouring methodology for removing natural impurities from cotton fabric. Maximum bioscouring was achieved using 5.0 IU xylanase and 4.0 IU pectinase with material to liquid ratio of 1:15 in a 50 mM buffer (glycine-NaOH buffer, 1.0 mM EDTA and 1% Tween-80, pH 8.5) with a treatment time of 60 min at 50 °C and an agitation speed of 60 rpm. The bioscoured cotton fabrics showed a gain of 1.17% in whiteness, 3.23% in brightness and a reduction of 4.18% in yellowness in comparison to fabric scoured with an alkaline scouring method. Further, after bleaching, the whiteness, brightness and tensile strength of the bioscoured fabrics were increased by 2.18, 2.33 and 11.74% along with a decrease of 4.61% in yellowness of bioscoured plus bleached fabrics in comparison to chemically scoured plus bleached fabrics. From the results, it is clear that bioscouring is more efficient, energy saving and an eco-friendly process and has the potential to replace the environment-damaging scouring process with the xylano-pectinolytic bioscouring process.

A detailed overview of xylanases: an emerging biomolecule for current and future prospective

“…The bioscouring was performed with 5.0 IU xylanase and 4.0 IU pectinase from Bacillus pumilus strain AJK (MTCC 10414) along with surfactants such as 1.0 mM EDTA and 1% Tween-80 at high pH 8.5 for 1 h at 50 °C. They observed improvement in whiteness, brightness, and reduction in yellowness by 1.2%, 3.2%, and 4.2% respectively that is better in comparison to chemical-based alkaline scouring method (Singh et al 2018). El et al (2018) reported improvement in desizing, bioscouring and bio-finishing efficiency using xylanase obtained from T. longibrachiatum KT693225 without any requirement of additives.…”

Understanding the effects of process parameters in the bioscouring of cotton and their interactions on pectate lyase activity by factorial design analysis

“…Enzyme activity of Bioprep ® 3000 L was studied firstly with the soluble substrate of polygalacturonic acid, so the enzyme-catalyzed reaction occurred under homogenous conditions (see item 3.1), while the cotton fabric used in bioscouring is insoluble, the reaction heterogenous and the enzyme must function at solid/liquid interfaces. Here, surfactants lower the surface tension of the aqueous scouring bath, which ultimately improved the penetration of the enzymes into the fibers (AGRAWAL et al, 2008;SINGH et al, 2018). Surfactants can also have a stimulatory effect by improving the turnover number of pectinase and increasing the contact frequency between the active site of the enzyme and the cotton substrate (OUMER; ABATE, 2017) as well as aiding in adsorption and desorption of the enzyme to and from the fabric.…”

Fast flow rate processes for purification of alkaline xylanase isoforms from Bacillus pumilus AJK and their biochemical characterization for industrial application purposes

“…These multiple forms may have different biochemical properties, specific activity, yield, and efficiency of xylan hydrolysis . Interest in the use of xylanases has increased during recent 5–10 years due to their eco‐friendly applicability in various industries such as animal feed, biobleaching of paper pulp, bioscouring of textile fibres, production of xylo‐oligosaccharides, waste‐water treatment, extraction and clarification of fruit juices, deinking of waste paper, baking industry, oil extraction, and still new applications are coming up especially for biofuel production.…”