Sustainable Products

Biopolishing in Dyeing
Most cotton knit fabrics and garments have tiny, protrudent fibers and dead cotton that quickly become the cause of pilling once washed or worn. Pills are most often removed through the process called biopolishing. In biopolishing, cellullase enzymes remove the fibers from cotton which makes the surface of the fabrics and garments clean for longer. Because Novozymes’ enzymes work under neutral pH they are capable of performing biopolishing in the dyebath both in textile and garment dyeing. That saves one processing step which means saved water and energy compared to conventional biopolishing under acidic conditions. It also improves the fabrics’ ability to retain color and keep retaining color over time.

The neutral cellulase enzymes are compatible with all fabric dyes and they ensure effective pill removal without affecting the color. This is a big plus that will help your customer sell high quality textiles to retailers or brands, and offer them an alternative that has reduced impact on the environment.

Bleach Clean-Up
Consistent bleach clean-up is key to even dyeing and shade reproducibility. Bleach clean-up is traditionally carried out using a reducing agent or hot water for rinsing, and both methods require a lot of water. An enzymatic approach reduces the use of water and energy.

Consistent dyeing of textile is essential to the quality of the intermediate and final product. Natural fabrics are normally bleached to get the right shade. Bleaches, such as hydrogen peroxide, are highly reactive chemicals. Any trace of this auxiliary can interfere with fabric dyeing and leave the fabrics patchy and uneven in color. That makes it necessary to completely remove the hydrogen peroxide before dyeing.

Novozymes Terminox® handles this task to perfection by breaking down hydrogen peroxide, H2O2 into water, H2O, and oxygen, O2. With bleach clean-up using Novozymes’ catalase the textiles are ready for consistent and even batch-to-batch dyeing reproducibility.

Combined Bleach Clean-Up & Biopolishing in Dying
If biopolishing takes place at all, the conventional process would be to have biopolishing carried out as a separate step, for instance after the rinse that removes bleaching agents from the fabric and before fabric dyeing. With Novozymes’ patented process bleach clean-up can be done in combination with the process that prevents fabric from forming pills. This process uses a neutral cellulase enzyme, Novozymes Cellusoft®, to assure top quality.

Abrasion Including Prewash
Abrasion is the process for creating stone-washed looks in jeans. There are two traditional ways of abrading jeans and obtain a stonewash look: Pumice stone and enzymes. Pumice stones are not only hard on processing equipment, but they also generate large amounts of sludge and pumice waste. Another challenge is the labor that goes into adding and removing the stones.

Enzymes create high-quality abrasion by loosening indigo color to create the style that your customer is looking to make. With enzymes it is possible to avoid the use of pumice stones or other auxiliaries that tear at production equipment, generate sludge, and challenge your customer’s working environment. With Novozymes’ proprietary technology for abrasion, prewash is also included.

Abrading with Novozymes Denimax® completely removes size. It is the way to get high color contrast finish, high color pull and a low degree of indigo back staining.

Desizing
After weaving, size must be removed from textiles to ensure high-quality dyeing in cotton and to prevent jeans from streaking. In fabrics made from cotton or blends of cotton and synthetic fibers, the warp threads are coated with size, most commonly starch, to prevent the threads from breaking during weaving. After weaving, the size must be removed in order to prepare the fabric for finishing, which is done with desizing.

The desizing process can be carried out in a number of ways, for instance by treating the fabric with chemicals such as acids, bases or oxidizing agents or hot water, depending on the size.

Desizing with enzymes ensures complete removal of starch-based sizes which means even dyeing and great batch-to-batch reproducibility. Adding Novozymes Aquazym® automatically reduces the need for chemicals and offers an approach that is gentle to the fabric and retains fabric strength.

Efficient processing of denim requires the right fabric preparation, including the removal of size. Enzymes ensure full removal of size and produce high-quality denim looks without streaks.

Denim Finishing
Novozymes’ enzymatic finishing solutions give denim fabrics a unique vintage look and, in addition, they enhance the abrasion effect. Enzymes enable your customer to create exciting new fashion looks that are distinctly different from the finish of traditionally bleached denim – and it’s easy to control.

Bioscouring
Scouring yarns and fabric is key to ensuring wettability of the textile and ensure consistent dyeing. Conventional scouring requires high temperatures and high consumption of chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. With enzymes, the process is called bioscouring, and it saves water, chemicals, and energy.

Bioscouring improves wettability of the fabric to and gently prepares it for the subsequent wet processing stages. Novozymes Scourzyme® breaks down the pectin in cotton and assists in the removal of waxes, oils and other impurities. Pectinases hydrolyze and selectively makes waxes extractable and removes pectin from raw cotton fiber during the preparation for dyeing.

Bioscouring enzymes retain the structure of the cotton and therefore the fabric strength for longer-lasting cottons.