ARS | Publication request: The bioscouring performance of four polygalacturonase enzymes

Submitted to: Proceedings Of The American Association Of Textile Chemists And Colorists
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: September 20, 2011
Publication Date: March 22, 2012
Citation: Easson, M.W., Mertens, J.A., Boykin, D.L., Fortier, C.A., Tarver, M.R., Condon, B.D. 2012. The bioscouring performance of four polygalacturonase enzymes. Proceedings of The American Association Of Textile Chemists And Colorists. 54-60.

Interpretive Summary: For several decades the textile industry has relied upon caustic methods to scour cotton fabrics in preparation for further dyeing procedures. This method consumes large quantities of water and energy and results in the emission of waste streams which require further costly neutralization. In our most recent effort at the Southern Regional Research Center we have employed a new method for scouring fabrics which does not generate a waste stream, nor does it consume large quantities of water. A new class of enzymes called polygalacturonases performs the bioscouring of greige cotton. Together with ultrasound the bioscouring performance of the enzymes was measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the results were further analyzed by statistical methods using ANOVA software in order to compare them with the traditional caustic scouring method.

Technical Abstract: Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR) analyses of greige cotton fabrics bioscoured with a combination of ultrasound and endo- and exo-polygalacturonase enzymes obtained from Rhizopus sp. fungi were used in a fractional factorial design experiment to examine their performance. The statistical results indicate that endo- and exo-polygalactur-onase enzyme treatments of greige cotton in combination with ultrasound are significantly different from control and could be an environmentally friendly alternative to the present-day caustic method for preparing cotton.