Greener chemistry
Most, if not all, of the finishing techniques applied to textiles are wet processes. From the cleaning and scouring of fibres to the dyeing and finishing of fabrics, the preparation and treatment of textiles utilises large quantities of chemicals and water. The chemicals that do not fully bond to textiles are discharged in wastewater, which needs to be treated. Thanks to progress made by chemicals companies, incremental benefits have been achieved with regards to efficiency. But the methods used to dye textiles have not fundamentally changed in years, with the exception of waterless supercritical CO2 dyeing, as developed by Dutch company DyeCoo. “Dyeing remains more of an art than a science,” as Jeffrey Hsu, chief innovation and marketing officer at NTX points out.
