E-Paper
IIT Ropar develops air nanobubble technology to bring down water usage in textile sector by 90%
Indian Institute of Technology , Ropar has developed an innovative green technology – air nanobubble, which it claims can reduce the quantity of water in textile sector up to 90%.
Can the large quantity of water used in textile sector be reduced? Efforts in the past have been made to achieve this breakthrough. However, now the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar has developed an innovative green technology – air nanobubble, which it claims can reduce the quantity of water in textile sector up to 90%.
As per a rough estimate 200 to 250 liters of water is required to process 1 kg of cotton fabric. The laboratory reports suggest the air nanobubble dispersed in water can reduce the water consumption, chemical dosage by 90-95% which ultimately saves 90% of the energy consumption as well, claimed by Dr Neelkanth Nirmalkar who has developed this technology.
Prof Rajeev Ahuja, Director, IIT Ropar said, “Textile is one of the most water-intensive industries and there is an escalating need to address the problem of managing water usage in textile industry associated with contamination of water. At IIT Ropar we are inventing and incorporating new-age processing methods to conserve water for our future generations.
In textile industry, the water is used at many steps required for fabric preparation including for dyeing, finishing chemicals in the textile substrates, desizing (process of removal of sizing material from yarn), scouring, bleaching, and mercerizing (chemical treatment of fabric to enhance affinity towards dye). At the same time the textile industry also produces the highest volume of wastewater. The major source of water pollution are pre-treatment, dyeing, printing, and finishing of textile materials.
Dr Neelkanth Nirmalkar informed that the innovation is based on nanobubbles of air and ozone. The bubbles are hydrophobic in nature therefore interacts better than water with the fabric and distributes chemical and dyes in the fabric much efficiently than just water. These bubbles are of a size equivalent to 1/10000th times of human hair.
Ozone nanobubbles efficiently remove the extra dye during fabric wash and degrade the dye in the water. Besides saving water consumption, the water after processing with a nano-bubble machine can be re-used. Nanobubble serves as a carrier for the processing chemical and reduces the extra chemical required. “Treatment of garment through this patented technology helps in maintain its real color for outdoor usage. It helps in obtaining 2-D effects, easy care, water repelling, and softening of fabric,” claimed Dr Nirmalkar.
