Enzymatic removal of cellulose from cotton/polyester fabric blends

The production of light-weight polyester fabrics from a polyester/cotton blended fabric, by means of the enzymatic removal of the cellulosic part of the material, was investigated. The removal of cotton from the blended fabric yielded more than 80% of insoluble microfibrillar material by the combined action of high beating effects and cellulase hydrolysis.Other major features of this enzymatic process for converting cotton fibers into microfibrillar material are bath ratio, enzyme dosage and treatment time

Progress on enzymatic preparation of flax and flax wool blends

This paper is outcome from a European Commission funded project under the FAIR programme and under COST ACTION 847 “Textile Quality and Biotechnology”. It demonstrated the high level of international collaboration with VTT Biotechnology in Finland and Minho University in Portugal. The outcome of the paper brought in significant knowledge of traditional and novel enzymatic preparation for flax and flax blends to meet the cost effective production. The paper showed the leading research in the enzymatic treatment using laccases or laccases/mediator systems for degradation of lignin for producing high quality of flax textile materials. J Shen also published another two papers in the subject of evaluation of physical and chemical properties of flax fibres from stand-retted crops in JTI 2006 and Industrial Crops & Products 2005