Drive the green transformation and upgrading of the textile industry - leading a "cloth" and "weaving" for a low-carbon future

"When I buy clothes recently, I find that more and more Chinese clothing brands have labels that say they are made of recycled fibers, and some also state the 'carbon footprint' of the clothes." Ms. Liu, a resident of Chaoyang District, Beijing, attaches great importance to environmental protection in her daily life, and she very much recognizes a new idea: a truly beautiful dress should not only be beautiful in appearance, but also "beautiful in origin" - the production process of clothing should be as low carbon and environmental protection as possible.

With the "double carbon" goal, the concept of green development has been deeply rooted in people's hearts. Like Ms. Liu, many people have begun to pay more attention to the low-carbon changes in the "food, clothing, housing and transportation" around them.

Today, the textile industry related to "clothing" is making great strides toward green transformation and upgrading. From waterless dyeing technology that can greatly reduce water pollution, to recycled fibers made of waste plastic bottles and waste clothing, and then to carbon fiber materials with excellent performance, innovative technologies have led the textile industry into a new stage of green and low-carbon development.

Say no to water pollution in textile industry

In the past, a large number of textile printing and dyeing enterprises gathered in Shantou, Guangdong province, which troubled the people living in the Lianjiang River basin: the chaotic discharge of various kinds of sewage not only gave off odor, but also polluted the soil in the surrounding villages. In recent years, Chaonan District and Chaoyang District of Shantou City have successively built textile printing and dyeing environmental protection comprehensive treatment centers, driving the transformation and upgrading of local textile printing and dyeing enterprises, and making Lianjiang appear clear.

For areas with textile industry as the main industry, water pollution is a problem that must be solved.

"The traditional textile industry is a typical industry with high energy consumption, high water consumption and high pollution, especially in the dyeing and finishing process of textiles, which will produce a lot of wastewater and waste residue." Cao Hongmei, vice president of textile College of Jiangsu Changzhou Textile and Garment Vocational and Technical College, told reporters that printing and dyeing wastewater contains dyes, slurries, additives, oils, fiber impurities and inorganic salts, high content of organic pollutants, large alkaline, water quality changes and high chroma, pollution treatment is difficult. Therefore, in order to fundamentally solve the water pollution caused by textile printing and dyeing, not only must the relevant departments strictly manage the discharge, but also rely on the continuous upgrading of printing and dyeing technology.

"The research and development of waterless dyeing technology is to reduce the production of printing and dyeing wastewater from the source." According to Cao Hongmei, the core of the current domestic research and development of anhydrous dyeing technology is the selection of non-aqueous media for dyeing. "Such as supercritical carbon dioxide dyeing technology, through pressurization, carbon dioxide liquefaction into a fluid medium, in this state after the completion of dyeing and then decompression, carbon dioxide can be recovered, the whole process does not need to wash, does not produce waste water." The other is to use organic solvents instead of water as a medium for dyeing, and after dyeing, the organic solvents can also be recycled."

These water-free dyeing techniques have been applied in practical production. Shandong Qingdao Jifa Group Co., Ltd. has industrialized the supercritical carbon dioxide dyeing technology and established a supercritical carbon dioxide anhydrous dyeing industrialization demonstration line, which has shortened the textile dyeing efficiency from 8 to 12 hours of traditional water dyeing to 3 to 4 hours. Guangdong Yida Textile Co., Ltd. uses organic solvent dyeing technology, in the dyeing process, saving water 100%, reduce energy consumption 39.3%, dye fixation rate of more than 97%, solvent recovery rate of more than 99%.

Not only can the process of "dyeing" save water, but also the washing link after dyeing has also changed due to the emergence of new technologies.

Jiangsu Lianyungang Yingyou Xinlicheng Textile Technology Co., Ltd. developed the flash dyeing no-wash process, "steam instead of washing", to achieve continuous, rapid dyeing and color fixing no-wash processing.

"General fabric dyeing after the need for washing steps, one is to wash away a large number of dyes in the dispersant, suspension agent, flexibility agent, thickener and other additives, the second is to wash away the floating color. So we developed dyes with almost no additives, which dramatically reduced the use of water." Sun Sumei, vice chairman of Jiangsu Lianyungang Yingyou XinLicheng Textile Technology Co., LTD., told reporters that in the flash dyeing production line, when the cloth passes through the pad dyeing unit, it is instantly colored under the action of 200 ° C high temperature, compared with the traditional process, it is removed from the four processes of washing, dehydration, fabric management, drying and setting.