{"id":124526,"date":"2023-03-28T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=124526"},"modified":"2023-03-28T07:50:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T05:50:27","slug":"researchers-separate-cotton-from-polyester-in-blended-fabric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/researchers-separate-cotton-from-polyester-in-blended-fabric\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Separate Cotton From Polyester in Blended Fabric"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\"A
A cotton knit fabric dyed blue and washed 10 times to simulate worn garments is enzymatically degraded to a slurry of fine fibers and “blue glucose” syrup that are separated by filtration – both of these separated fractions have potential recycle value. Credit: Sonja Salmon.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In a new study<\/a>, North Carolina State University researchers found they could separate blended cotton and polyester fabric using enzymes \u2013 nature\u2019s tools for speeding chemical reactions. Ultimately, they hope their findings will lead to a more efficient way to recycle the fabric\u2019s component materials, thereby reducing textile waste.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, they also found the process need more steps if the blended fabric was dyed or treated with chemicals that increase wrinkle resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can separate all of the cotton out of a cotton-polyester blend, meaning now we have clean polyester that can be recycled,\u201d said the study\u2019s corresponding author Sonja Salmon<\/a><\/strong>, associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State. \u201cIn a landfill, the polyester is not going to degrade, and the cotton might take several months or more to break down. Using our method, we can separate the cotton from polyester in less than 48 hours.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, consumers throw approximately 11 million tons of textile waste into U.S. landfills each year. Researchers wanted to develop a method of separating the cotton from the polyester so each component material could be recycled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the study, researchers used a \u201ccocktail\u201d of enzymes in a mildly acidic solution to chop up cellulose in cotton. Cellulose is the material that gives structure to plants\u2019 cell walls. The idea is to chop up the cellulose so it will \u201cfall out\u201d out of the blended woven structure, leaving some tiny cotton fiber fragments remaining, along with glucose. Glucose is the biodegradable byproduct of degraded cellulose. Then, their process involves washing away the glucose and filtering out the cotton fiber fragments, leaving clean polyester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a mild process \u2013 the treatment is slightly acidic, like using vinegar,\u201d Salmon<\/strong> said. \u201cWe also ran it at 50 degrees Celsius, which is like the temperature of a hot washing machine.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s quite promising that we can separate the polyester to a clean level,\u201d Salmon<\/strong> added. \u201cWe still have some more work to do to characterize the polyester\u2019s properties, but we think they will be very good because the conditions are so mild. We\u2019re just adding enzymes that ignore the polyester.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They compared degradation of 100% cotton fabric to degradation of cotton and polyester blends, and also tested fabric that was dyed with red and blue reactive dyes and treated with durable press chemicals. In order to break down the dyed materials, the researchers had to increase the amount of time and enzymes used. For fabrics treated with durable press chemicals, they had to use a chemical pre-treatment before adding the enzymes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dye that you choose has a big impact on the potential degradation of the fabric,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author Jeannie Egan, a graduate student at NC State<\/strong>. \u201cAlso, we found the biggest obstacle so far is the wrinkle-resistant finish. The chemistry behind that creates a significant block for the enzyme to access the cellulose. Without pre-treating it, we achieved less than 10% degradation, but after, with two enzyme doses, we were able to fully degrade it, which was a really exciting result.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Researchers said the polyester could be recycled, while the slurry of cotton fragments could be valuable as an additive for paper or useful addition to composite materials. They\u2019re also investigating whether the glucose could be used to make biofuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe slurry is made of residual cotton fragments that resist a very powerful enzymatic degradation,\u201d Salmon<\/strong> said. \u201cIt has potential value as a strengthening agent. For the glucose syrup, we\u2019re collaborating on a project to see if we can feed it into an anaerobic digester to make biofuel. We\u2019d be taking waste and turning it into bioenergy, which would be much better than throwing it into a landfill.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The study, \u201cEnzymatic textile fiber separation for sustainable waste processing,\u201d was published in Resources, Environment and Sustainability<\/a>.<\/em> Co-authors included Siyan Wang, Jialong Shen, Oliver Baars and Geoffrey Moxley. Funding was provided by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation, Kaneka Corporation and the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science at NC State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new study, North Carolina State University researchers found they could separate blended cotton and polyester fabric using enzymes \u2013 nature\u2019s tools for speeding chemical reactions. Ultimately, they hope their findings will lead to a more efficient way to recycle the fabric\u2019s component materials, thereby reducing textile waste. However, they also found the process need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The North-Carolina-State-University scientists use a \u201ccocktail\u201d of enzymes in a mildly acidic solution to chop up cellulose in cotton so it will \u201cfall out\u201d of the blended woven structure","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,17143],"tags":[6162,10416,5840,13444,11323,10453,12468],"supplier":[2718,1214],"class_list":["post-124526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-recycling","tag-cellulose","tag-circulareconomy","tag-enzymes","tag-fabrics","tag-naturalfibers","tag-recycling","tag-textiles","supplier-north-carolina-state-university","supplier-united-states-environmental-protection-agency-epa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124526"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=124526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}