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Review date: July 24, 2003
PNNL-SA-27883

Textile Processing
Related publications, More applications

Polymeric "size" applied to cotton/polyester yarn using liquid CO2

Traditional textile processing and production are based on aqueous processing. The use of water as the carrier solvent for processes, such as slashing (sizing), desizing, dyeing, and finishing, consumes large quantities of water, results in large energy consumption for drying and results in large volumes of wastewater requiring treatment. The development of a nonaqueous based textile processing represents a radical redesign of the current process. The advantage of re-engineering the process from the beginning is that a true "zero discharge" manufacturing operation can be achieved through the use of an environmentally benign, "green" solvent. Both liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide can be used as a replacement solvent for water and exploit its property of existing as a gas at room temperature.

100% Polyester dyed using supercritical CO2

In studies at PNNL, an elegantly simple system comprising a mixture of CO2 and dye was used to impregnate polyester fabric with high loadings of several different color-fast dyes. In the area of textile sizing/slashing there is an extensive program at PNNL for using CO2 technology. In textile sizing/slashing, the elimination of an aqueous process that requires repeated drying steps and generates a large wastewater stream has the potential to significantly reduce operating, material, and energy costs.