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EP-4240898-B1 - METHOD FOR PROCESSING FIBROUS MATTER FROM WASTE MATERIAL

EP4240898B1EP 4240898 B1EP4240898 B1EP 4240898B1EP-4240898-B1

Inventors

  • SHAH, Shikha

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20211109

Claims (13)

  1. A method (100) for processing fibrous matter from a waste fibrous material to obtain a product, the method comprising: a) obtaining (101) the waste fibrous material; b) trimming (102) the obtained waste fibrous material from step a) (101) by a first mechanical treatment, to obtain a plurality of trimmed fibers of optimum length ranging from 100 mm - 200 mm on an average; c) pre-treating (104) the plurality of trimmed waste fibrous matter to obtain an impurity free trimmed fibrous matter; d) providing a second mechanical treatment (106) to the fibers obtained at step c) (104); e) washing (108) the fibers obtained at step d) (106) with fluidized pressure at 0.5 - 20 bar pressure to obtain a densely packed fibers; f) providing a first chemical treatment (110) to the densely packed fibers obtained at step e) (108) with an enzyme and water solution; g) draining (112) the enzyme and water solution from the fibers obtained at step f) (110) and refilling a container with water in a ratio at least in a range of 1:2.8 to 1:3.2; h) heating (114) the refilled container at a temperature of 60 - 140 degree Celsius at 3 - 11 bar in a mixture of chemical and water to obtain a fiber cake; i) providing (116) controlled shock waves to the fiber cake; optionally providing a second chemical treatment (118) to the fiber cake obtained at step i) step (116); j) hydro-extracting (120) the chemically treated fiber cake obtained at step i) (116, 118); k) opening (122) the hydro-extracted fiber cake; l) drying (124) the opened fibers; m) pre-conditioning and softening (126) the dried fibers; n) mechanically treating and segregating (128) the fibers obtained at step m) (126); step n) further comprising blending with other fibers comprising cotton, wool, jute, rayon, silk, hemp, alpaca fiber, polyester, lyocell or other spinnable fibers; o) softening (129) the treated fibers using lubricating agents; p) processing (130) the softened fiber into a clean and parallel sliver; and q) spinning (132) the obtained sliver to obtain a product.
  2. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a dyeing and a stabilizing step that can be done before the hydro-extraction (120).
  3. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the waste fibrous materials are selected from the group comprising bales, rolls, hanks, vegetable, plant, non-textile hemp, jute waste, palm waste, textile waste, lignocellulosic materials, wheat straw, rice straw, bagasse, cotton stalk, retted stalks, retted leaves and non-retted stalks.
  4. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first mechanical treatment (102) is carried out from a group of machines selected from a manual cutting machine, round knife cutting machine, straight knife cutting machine, band knife cutting machine, die cutting machine, notcher machine, drill cutting machine, computerized cutting machine, laser cutting machine, water jet cutting machine, rib cutting machine, air jet cutting machine, ultrasonic cutting machine, and plasma torch cutting machine.
  5. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the enzyme at step f) step (110) is selected from a group of enzymes comprising laccases, peroxidases, cellulases, pectinases, hemicellulases, amylases, xylanase, or cellulosomes.
  6. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chemical treatment is carried out for 0.5 - 72 hours.
  7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein drying (124) is done by radio frequency to reducing the moisture to 10 - 30 %;
  8. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mechanical treatment and segregation (128) is done by a dual carding machine, a mono or single carding machine, a tandem carding machine, a roller and clearer carding machine, a stationary flat carding machine, or revolving flat carding machine and/ or fibre cleaners, openers, blow room actions.
  9. The method (100) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising cutting and bailing if needed after step p) (130).
  10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising classifying the softened and preconditioned fibers obtained after step m) step (126) on the basis of physical and chemical properties thereof, using mechanical segregation methods.
  11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein processing includes cleaning, parallelly arranging, reducing inconsistency of fiber by removing highly varied fibers, and removing short and weak fibers.
  12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the product consists of woven products, non-woven products, knitted products, composites, nano fibers, micronized fibers.
  13. A method (200) for processing fibrous matter from a waste fibrous material to obtain a product, the method comprising: a) obtaining (101) the waste fibrous material; b) trimming (102) the obtained waste fibrous material from step a) step (101) by a first mechanical treatment, to obtain a plurality of trimmed fibers of optimum length ranging from 100 mm - 200 mm on an average; c) pre-treating (104) the plurality of trimmed fibrous matter to obtain an impurity free trimmed fibrous matter; d) providing a second mechanical treatment (106) to the fibers obtained at step c) (104); e) washing (108) the fibers obtained at step d) step (106) with pressurized fluid at 0.5 - 20 bar to obtain a densely packed fibers; f) providing a first chemical treatment (110) to the densely packed fibers obtained at step e) step (108) with an enzyme and water solution; g) draining (112) the enzyme and water solution from the fibers obtained at step f) (110) and refilling a container with water in a ratio at least in a range of 1:2.8 to 1:3.2; h) heating (114) the refilled container at a temperature of 60 - 140 degree Celsius at 3 - 11 bar in a mixture of chemical and water to obtain a fiber cake; i) providing (116) controlled shock waves to the fiber cake; optionally providing a second chemical treatment (118) to the fiber cake obtained at step i) (116); j) dyeing (202) the fiber cake obtained at step i) (116, 118); k) stabilizing and softening (204) the dyed product obtained at step j) step (202); l) hydro-extracting (120) the stabilized product obtained at step k) (204); m) opening (122) the hydro-extracted fiber cake; n) drying (124) the opened fibers; o) pre-conditioning and softening (126) the dried fibers; p) mechanically treating and segregating (128) the fibers obtained at step step (126); step p) further comprising blending with other fibers comprising cotton, wool, jute, rayon, silk, hemp, alpaca fiber, polyester, lyocell or other spinnable fibers; q) softening (129) the treated fibers using lubricating agents; r) processing (130) the softened fiber into a clean and parallel sliver with; and s) spinning (132) the obtained sliver to obtain a product.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a method of processing fibrous material to obtain a product. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a fibrous matter obtained from a waste material for utilizing the same for industrial purposes. BACKGROUND Fibers are thin filaments which are employed to manufacture other materials such as clothes, rugs, mattress, insulation, composite etc. Fibers are either natural or man-made. There are different sources from which fibers are obtained. In case of natural fibres, it can mainly come from fibres textile plants or animals like cotton, flax from plants and wool, mohair, silk from animals. In case of man-made fibers there have been various source including trees for regenerated cellulose like viscose and synthetics like polyester from fossil fuels. It has been noted that the traditional means of spinnable fibres are causing environmental distress and are falling short of the increasing demand. The world uses around 110 million tons of fibres each year for textiles. 62% are synthetics majorly polyester which is nothing but plastic and major source of microplastics. As it is by-product of fossil fuel industry, with the rising awareness against the climate impact of the industry, the future of polyester production can be under jeopardy. Around 25% is cotton which is now majorly GMO is nature and is infamous for its high water and pesticides consumption. Around 7% is man-made cellulose like Viscose which is unfortunately still majorly coming for trees leading to de-forestation and hazardous hefty chemical usage for processing. All this clearly suggests an urgent need for new alternative materials. Two sources of natural fibers and processing thereof to meet this demand have been identified: 1. The first is lignocellulosic waste. Millions of tons of lignocellulosic waste as a part of agriculture waste, processing waste etc. For example, the left out bast part of crops including but not limited to pineapple, hemp oil seed (not same as hemp textile crop), waste to jute processing units, cotton stalks, linseed, banana, kenaf, and wild grass nettle.2. The other is bast textile crops. A very small percentage of world's usage includes bast fibres like from hemp textile crop, Jute crop, Flax textile crop etc. One of the key reasons of they being a small percentage is also because of the lower processability of the fiber. For example, Jute can only be used for low value applications or high-count yarn as in packaging sacks. Improving the quality of raw materials can increase the applications. One of the other reasons is that these fibres can need a different processing infrastructure in case of spinning and weaving than most of the used textile infrastructure, reducing the convenience for adoption of these materials by the textile manufacturing hubs. Making this form of fibers more suitable to different manufacturing systems can further increase the adoptability of these fibers. Above mentioned fibers undergo extraction from the respective sources, followed by processing. The processing can differ from fiber to fiber and can involve improving the quality of the fibers to make them industrially fit or as per the project requirements. However, the existing or conventional processes have different kinds of shortcomings: 1. They are not suitable for multiple kinds of lignocellulosic fibers. These processes work only with one or a few kinds of fibers requiring different production lines and high dependance on one or few kinds of raw materials.2. The above reduces the economic viability and availability of raw materials. Further, increases the risk of the fall of supply chain as it is dependent on selected seasonal crops, leads to non-agile, rigid manufacturing system and hurdles scalability as the production line cannot be replicated with ease in different geographies.3. They also yield a low-quality fiber that maybe suitable for paper or for non-woven but not spinning. If suitable, can only have low yarns count, low blend percentage, compromised functionalities such as low strength, high imperfections, high fibrillation etc.4. The available processes are not eco-friendly, are expensive, and highly error prone due to the precision required and are not scalable. They also require high capital and operational investment.5. Some of these processes do not work with finer fibers and yarn counts and their end products have low dyeability, color fastness, and fail to provide the natural feel of cellulose. US 2016/283917 A1, Nunn Kayren Jov et al. relates to the recycling of post industrial and pre-consumer materials. Particularly, the invention relates to a method and corresponding system of processing waste fabrics to rejuvenated fibrous materials that will maintain their original quality in downstream production without a loss of downstream manufacturing efficiencies. US 6 378 179 B1, Gary F. Hirsch relates to a tearing line includes the application of steam and enzymes