The beneficial influence of enzymatic scouring on cotton properties

Enzymatic scouring has been investigated for over two decades as an environmentally friendly process. Replacement of harsh alkalis by enzymes minimizes not only the COD and BOD in effluents, but also the amount of effluents, because the rinsing step may be omitted. However, advantages of enzymatic scouring on treated fabrics should also be highlighted. The benefits provided by enzymatic scouring are introduced in this paper. Enzymatic scouring was conducted under optimized conditions established previously. The weight loss, damage to fiber surface, softness, and pilling tendency of enzymatically treated fabrics were measured and compared with alkali scoured fabrics. Furthermore, K/S values of the scoured and dyed fabrics were measured before and after a number of washes in order to investigate the effect of residual enzymes on dye-ability and colorfastness.