New, Earth-Friendly Method to Create Bright, White Cotton Fabric Lowers Energy Consumption

It's more important than ever to develop sustainable, industrial processes in order to help the environment and curtail the rise of climate change. Now, scientists have discovered a new, earth-friendly method that can dramatically reduce the amount of energy it takes to bleach cotton while at the same time improving the quality of the material.

In recent years, consumers have demanded more eco-friendly fabrics. The cotton industry's current whitening techniques, unfortunately, aren't all that environmentally friendly. The methods require bleaching the natural fiber at very high temperatures with hydrogen peroxide. While this results in bright white material, it also lowers the quality of the material and takes quite a bit of energy to accomplish.

About 7.3 billion pounds of cotton is produced in the U.S. alone. This means that the technique used to bleach cotton can have a huge impact on the environment as energy needs soar. Yet in order to cut down on the energy, the scientists decided to investigate a new bleaching method.

The researchers created a novel compound that, when used with hydrogen peroxide, can drop the bleaching temperature down to 140 degrees Fahrenheit from 200 degrees. This 60 percent difference could result in a process that requires less than half of the energy as the commercial technique. Not only that, but the new method produced less wastewater, improved the weight of the material and performed its original function-that is, whitening the cotton.

The findings could mean a new way to help create more environmentally-friendly white cotton. This could be a huge step forward for the fashion world and the manufacturing process associated with creating bleached cotton. By reducing the amount of energy needed, steps can be taken to help curtail the rise of greenhouse gas emissions which can contribute to climate change.

The findings are published in the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.