Remediation of Environmental Pollution by Substituting Poly(vinyl alcohol) with Biodegradable Warp Size from Wheat Gluten

Abstract

We report the development of wheat gluten as an environmentally friendly sizing agent that can replace poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and make the textile industry more environmentally friendly. Wheat gluten applied onto polyester/cotton (P/C) and polyester as warp sizing agent provided sizing performance and biodegradability in activated sludge necessary to substitute poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). PVA is one of the most widely used sizing agents and provides excellent sizing performance to synthetic fibers and their blends but is expensive and difficult to degrade in textile wastewater treatment plants. Although considerable efforts have been made to replace PVA, it has not been possible to develop a warp sizing chemical that can match the sizing performance of PVA and at the same time be cost-effective and biodegrade in effluent treatment plants. At similar % add-on, wheat gluten provided similar cohesion to P/C but much higher abrasion resistance to polyester fabrics compared to PVA. With a biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) to chemical oxygen demand (COD) ratio of 0.7 compared to 0.01 for PVA, wheat gluten was readily degradable in activated sludge. Wheat gluten has the ability to replace PVA for textile warp sizing applications.

Functions of soymeal compositions in textile sizing

“…6, viscosity of soymeal sizes had no significant decrease until 2.5 h. After that, viscosity of soymeal sizes decreased gradually and finally arrived 88% of the original viscosity. Similarly, soyprotein isolate sizes and PVA sizes showed 12% and 13.6% decrease in viscosity after heating for 4.5 h. PVA sizes probably contain additives, such as lubricants, softeners, emulsifiers and finishing and wetting agents (Chen et al, 2013), which might be degraded during 90 • C treatment. In addition, the PVA sizes in partially hydrolysis grades, contain residual poly(vinyl acetate), which also might be degraded during high temperature treatment.…”

“…After weaving, sizes will be removed from fabrics through rinsing. Desizing efficiency mainly influenced dyeing quality and water consumption during fabric production (Chen et al, 2013). As shown in Table 3, soymeal sizes had desizing efficiency higher than or similar to PVA sizes on polyester and poly-cotton fabrics.…”

“…Desizing usually includes wash and rinse with liquor-to-fabric ratio of about 30:1, 20:1, 10:1 or 5:1 each cycle (Samaha et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2013). To evaluate the desizability of sizes in hot water and room temperature water, 90 and 20 • C are usually used (Du et al, 2007;Peng et al, 2009;Chen et al, 2013).…”

“…Desizing usually includes wash and rinse with liquor-to-fabric ratio of about 30:1, 20:1, 10:1 or 5:1 each cycle (Samaha et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2013). To evaluate the desizability of sizes in hot water and room temperature water, 90 and 20 • C are usually used (Du et al, 2007;Peng et al, 2009;Chen et al, 2013). Since the soymeal sizes could almost be completely removed from polyester, polyester/cotton and cotton fabrics after 1 cycle of wash and 1 cycle of rinse, desizing was done by treating the sized fabrics in water with 1 cycles of wash and 1 cycle of rinse under 90 • C and 20 • C for 5 min, respectively.…”

Emerging Green Technologies and Environment Friendly Products for Sustainable Textiles

“…Likewise Stegmaier et al [85] investigated chitosan as a possible sizing agent in fabric production by appropriate modifications in the textile industry. More recently, Yang and Reddy [81] and Chen et al [86,87] are among the researchers who have demonstrated that plant proteins (such as soy proteins and wheat gluten) and chicken feathers used as sizing agents on cotton, polyester and polyester/cotton provide similar performance properties to PVA and are easily degraded in activated sludge. In a subsequent publication, Reddy et al [88] reported the use of keratin from chicken feathers as a warp sizing agent on polyester/cotton blends and polyester which can replace PVA and make the textile industry more environmentally friendly (Fig.…”