Producing light-weight bast fibers from canola biomass for technical textiles

Abstract

Due to the excessive use of water required for cotton cultivation, scientists in this field have been looking at waste biomass as an alternative source of fiber supply. Canola waste biomass is a source of textile fibers which effectively costs nothing, as the biomass can be collected from the waste plant stems of canola plants after harvesting. Therefore, an investigation has been conducted to identify the characteristics of canola fiber and of the canola cultivar ( Brassica napus L.) suitable for textile applications. In this research, a bio-inspired approach was applied to produce fiber from canola biomass by water retting of four different cultivars (HYHEAR 1, Topas, 5440, and 45H29) cultivated in a greenhouse under controlled atmospheric conditions. It was found that the structural hierarchy of fiber density, mechanical properties and other textile fiber properties of canola fiber differ from cultivar to cultivar, which can be carefully harnessed for different applications. Further, it was found that the density of canola fiber is much lower than that of cotton and other competitive bast fibers, owing to its hollow structure, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy. The results suggest that canola may be an excellent choice for manufacturing of non-woven fabrics, eco-composites, apparel or other technical textiles.

Fibre attributes and mapping the cultivar influence of different industrial cellulosic crops (cotton, hemp, flax, and canola) on textile properties

“…Khan (2016) conducted a separate research work and found the fibre yield (%) of 20 different Canola cultivars (excluding 5440, 45H29) ranged between 6.23 and 13.82%; the fibre yield (%) of HYHEAR 1 was 12.66% and for Topas 10.63%. Fibre yield (%) found by Shuvo et al (2019) was within this range reported by Khan (2016). Regarding moisture regain (%) (MR), HYHEAR 1 showed the highest (12.53 ± 3.37%) MR and 45H29 showed the least (9.31 ± 3.40%) among the water-retted virgin canola fibres (Shuvo, 2019), whereas HYHEAR 1 showed the highest (7.64 ± 0.03%) MR and Topas showed the least (6.03 ± 0.05%) among the 10% softener-treated canola fibres.…”

“…Whereas, pectin was completely removed from hemp fibre interior by the NaOH boiling process, lignin was not completely removed, as a small portion of lignin was situated in the second wall layers of the fibres which cannot be accessed by NaOH. Similarly, an alkaline and acidic bath treatment followed by a softener treatment also produced textile grade canola fibres (Shuvo et al 2019) to achieve the optimum result for CSP of canola fibres, whereas Sevenhuysen and Rahman (2016) used an enzymatic treatment to produce textile grade canola fibres.…”

“…Similar research has been conducted in characterizing different cultivars of flax regarding length, shape, packing of the ultimate fibres, where inconsistency of fibre properties was identified (King and Vincent 1996). Shuvo et al (2019) conducted a research work on four hundred (400) canola plants of four different cultivars, namely HYHEAR 1, Topas, 5440, and 45H29 (grown and harvested inside greenhouse of Crop Technology Centre, University of Manitoba) and found that 45H29 produced the highest and 5440 produced the lowest fibre yield (%), which were 10.41 ± 1.86% and 9.11 ± 2.13%, respectively. No significant difference was identified among the means of the fibre yield (%) (p > 0.05) by Shuvo et al (2019).…”

“…Shuvo et al (2019) conducted a research work on four hundred (400) canola plants of four different cultivars, namely HYHEAR 1, Topas, 5440, and 45H29 (grown and harvested inside greenhouse of Crop Technology Centre, University of Manitoba) and found that 45H29 produced the highest and 5440 produced the lowest fibre yield (%), which were 10.41 ± 1.86% and 9.11 ± 2.13%, respectively. No significant difference was identified among the means of the fibre yield (%) (p > 0.05) by Shuvo et al (2019). However, a significant variation was identified among the fibre yield (%) of eight different hemp cultivars by Jankauskienė et al (2015).…”

“…A new generation of lignocellulosic textile grade bast fibre has been recently developed by Sevenhuysen and Rahman (2016), which is canola (Brassica napus L.). A separate research work also revealed that canola is even light-weight compared to other available commercial textile fibres like jute, flax, hemp, and cotton (Shuvo et al 2019). Furthermore, canola has some strategic advantage over many commercial textile fibres regarding their production and supply chain requirements.…”