Enzyme trials save water, time and carbon emissions for textile firm
30/03/2011
Commenting on the results, Novozymes business development and marketing director for textiles and leather, Sebastian Søderberg, said: “Novozymes’ solutions can contribute to decreasing dependence in the textile industry on chemicals, lower consumption of energy and water, and bring down costs, all while maintaining superior product quality.”
Novozymes estimates that global knitwear production uses the same amount of water as 24 million people in rural China use for drinking water. It wants to help the textile industry consume less water and keep production cleaner by decreasing the toxicity of effluent.
Hong Kong-based Esquel Group, the world's largest producer of cotton shirts, has carried out trials of Novozymes enzymes several trials applying Novozymes’ bioinnovative solutions at the different stages of production. During these tests, the company achieved a saving of 30 cubic-metres of water per tonne of knitted fabric in the bleaching process alone by using enzyme rather than conventional technology.
In contrast to some chemicals such as polycarboxylates that are harder to degrade, enzymes are readily degraded into harmless compounds, Novozymes says. Moreover, a relatively smaller dosage of enzymes is needed for textile processing as enzymes are catalytic by nature: they will actively target one molecule, dissolve it, and move on to the next. The small dosages, combined with the fact that enzymes are quickly degraded, leads to lower toxicity when using enzymes instead of traditional chemicals in the processing, the company argues.
Enzymes can contribute to lowering the critical dilution volume for toxicity and reduce water used in processing. They can also lower the expense of water and effluent treatment.
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