Wet pretreatment of linen by enzyme and alternative bleaching techniques

Abstract

An attempt has been made to scour linen with a multifunctional cultured enzyme containing pectinase and xylanase. The activity level of the individual component in the enzyme is measured and then the optimum level of treatment is obtained. The removal of impurities is measured in terms of methylene blue absorption, residual lignin and absorbency. Bleaching with peroxide using sodium persulphate as activator has also been attempted along with scouring as well as a separate process. Combined scouring - bleaching although does not yield very good whiteness, the two-step pretreatment gives satisfactory results. Bleaching with KMnO₄ is also effectively done but with relatively higher strength loss. For ease in interpretation, the results are analysed with polar diagrams.