Abstract:
Bio scouring of cotton, which is an eco-friendly alternative to the expensive
and polluting conventional caustic scouring, has not been successfully
adopted mainly due to its inability to remove substrate wax. However, with
surfactants, substrate’s absorbency can be boosted during the enzymatic
scouring. An investigation of possibility of integrating cotton wax
degrading bacteria with pectinase at mutually favorable temperature, pH
and time during bio scouring was hence undertaken. Hydrocarbon
degrading bacteria were isolated from cotton gin trash collected from Kibos
and Kitui ginneries in Kenya, characterized and tested for the cotton fibre
wax removal. The isolates were successfully pre inducted on paraffin wax
then used to treat cotton fibres at 45 0 C and pH 8 for one hour. Wax removal
efficiency was assessed by the percentage weight loss of the fibres after
soxhlet solvent extraction. An average cotton fibre wax degradationof
0.765% out of 1.2% present in the fibres was recorded. This amount was
comparable to that removed by caustic and pectinase with surfactants pre-
scours. The isolates would hence enhance wax removal during pectinase
bio scouring of cotton.
