BIOSCOURING AND BLEACHING OF KNITTED COTTON FABRICS IN ONE-STEP PROCESS USING ENZYMATICALLY GENERATED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE

This research involves the study of knitted cotton fabric bleaching using hydrogen peroxide generated enzymatically. Initially the bioscouring was performed using the enzymes cellulose (EC. 3.2.1.4), pectinase (EC. 4.2.2.2), and lipase (EC. 3.1.1.3) to remove impurities. Then bleaching was performed using hydrogen peroxide, which was enzymatically produced by glucose oxidase (EC. 1.1.3.4) during oxidation of glucose. The generation of hydrogen peroxide and bleaching were assessed using experimental designs, where it was observed that the most significant effect to generate peroxide was time and for bleaching was the concentration of hydrogen peroxide. The whiteness and hydrophilicity of the treated knitted fabric were evaluated. The whiteness index of the enzymatically bleached fabric was 52 +/- 1 degrees Berger with good hydrophilicity, by capillarity method 5.2cm in 10 min. The results from this work demonstrate that this process can be an alternative for the textile preparation industry. There is a large reduction in water consumption compared to the conventional process. The water consumption is four times lower than the water consumption of the conventional process.