Water-free dyeing to begin this year
16/07/2010
Water scarcity and increased environmental awareness are worldwide concerns causing a sharp rise in prices for intake and disposal of water, the company commented on announcing the development.
The textile industry is believed to be one of the biggest consumers of water across all manufacturing sectors. Conventional textile dyeing uses large amounts of fresh water, which is then disposed as waste water containing dyestuff chemicals.
On average, an estimated 100–150 litres of water are needed to process each kilo of textile material. Water is used as a solvent in many pre-treatment and finishing processes, such as washing, scouring, bleaching, dyeing, rinsing and finishing. The contaminated water must then be handled and treated prior to disposal or recycling.
The Yeh Group believes it will be the first textile mill to implement a new process developed by its partner DyeCoo Textile Systems, and will bring to market products made under the new system in the fourth quarter of 2010 under the name DryDye fabrics. The Yeh Group has exclusive rights to the technology.
The new process uses supercritical fluid carbon dioxide instead of water for dyeing textile materials. It uses only nominal amounts of carbon dioxide, nearly all of which is recycled.
The fabrics will have the same dye qualities and durability as current, conventionally-dyed fabrics, The Yeh Group says.
Supercritical fluids have been used in various extraction processes for decades and are the mainstay of extracting caffeine from coffee and tea, for example.
DryDye fabrics will be available to consumers in early 2011 through select brand customers of the group. The initial brands adopting and marketing DryDye fabrics will be announced in the coming weeks.
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