Ecofriendly Approach to Improve Pectinolytic Reaction and Process Optimization of Bioscouring of Organic Cotton Textiles

Abstract

The present study focused on improvement of the enzymatic bioscouring performance by using specific mixed enzymes such as alkaline pectinase, protease, lipase and cellulase enzymes. An attempt was made to study the pectinolytic activity of degrading rate of pectin on organic cotton fabric and removal of wax at various enzymatic process conditions such as enzyme concentration, temperature, and time. These process variables were selected based on the artificial neural network (ANN) method. Output of the experiment resulted in fabric physical properties such as weight loss, water absorbency, wetting area, whiteness index, yellowness index, brightness index. The enzymatic scoured organic cotton fabric was tested for wax content and pectin degradation rate on the fabric and their results were optimized with minimum error. The test results were analyzed to predict the optimum process parameters to achieve the required bioscouring fabric properties and removal of pectin degrading rate, and their results were compared with actual trials.