Comparative Industrial Wet Processing of Cotton-Spandex Knit Fabric Using Conventional Scouring, Bio-Scouring, and Integrated One-Bath Reactive Dyeing

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Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Fabric Engineering, Barishal Textile Engineering College, P.O. Box: 8200, Barishal, Bangladesh

2 Department of Wet Processing Engineering, Shahid Abdur Rab Serniabat Textile Engineering College, P.O. Box: 8200, Barishal, Bangladesh

Abstract

The overuse of water, thermal energy, chemicals, and auxiliaries in the processes of pretreatment and reactive dyeing in textile wet processing operations has created a huge burden on the environment and complicated the operations. In the present study, conventional scouring and enzymatic bio-scouring processes and a one-bath reactive dyeing process were compared and contrasted in scouring cotton-spandex knit fabric on a production scale. The single jersey knit fabric made with a batch weight of 435 kg with a liquor ratio of 1:6 was processed by using 95% BCI cotton and 5% spandex. The water consumption, steam requirement, electrical power consumption, process duration, chemical loading, and finished fabric quality performance were evaluated by comparative evaluation. The one-bath route (with integration) was the most energy-efficient of all the routes studied. A 29.4% reduction in water usage was achieved for one-bath processing, which used 56.5 L/kg of fabric compared to 80.0 L/kg of fabric for conventional scouring. The number of stages of operation was shortened from 45 to 27, and the actual processing time was shortened from about 11 h to 7 h 30 min without the need for separate pretreatment and intermediate washing operations. Other benefits include reduction in steam consumption, electrical power requirements, and severity of the chemicals. Quality assurance testing showed finished fabric properties of dimensional stability, spirality, GSM, pH, appearance retention, and color fastness were satisfactory for all processing methods.

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Main Subjects

Progress in Color, Colorants and Coatings

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 September 2026

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