Sustainable textile finishing using ozone and nanobubble technologies
The textile finishing industry gives fabrics and garments their final appearance and properties. It employs traditional processes that are not environmentally friendly. These industrial activities have some environmental consequences, mainly related to the massive consumption of chemicals and intensive use of water and energy resources, waste-water treatments required, etc. Processes like desizing, bleaching, washing (roll-to-roll systems on fabrics) and dip-coating functionalization or dyeing (batch systems on garments) are currently developed by wet application systems and chemicals that require huge amounts of water and treatment of the waste-water released. The use of alternative chemistry like ozone for fabric treatment in a continuous way, and use of nanobubble technology for garment finishing is able to reduce the chemical consumption – also water consumption – in comparison with traditional systems.