Eco-friendly Process for Textile Fibre from Plant Resources for Various Applications

The increasing cost and decreasing availability of petroleum resources has increased the price of common fibers making them unaffordable for commodity textile applications.However, the global demand for textile fibres is increasing and estimated at USD 650 billion by 2025.Further, with the impetus given by Government of India to textiles industry there is an immediate need for identification of alternative fibres from renewable resources.

The process of extraction and separation of natural fibres from plant material is called retting. Retting involves series of biological, chemical and mechanical processes that are energy intensive,consumes high amounts of water, generate large quantities of process waste making the process uneconomical. In order to mitigate the above mentioned process issues, CSIR-IHBT has developed a cost-effective process for separation of natural fibres from underutilized, abundantly available and renewable lignocellulosic biomass.

This process finds application in extraction and separation of natural fibres from underutilized, abundantly available and renewable lignocellulosic biomass.

1. Downstream fibre separation process based on inexpensive, recyclable, industrial waste material.
2. Less time consuming as compared to conventional methods.
3. Process has flexibility for processing plants having stalk diameter in the range of 8-13 mm.
4. Extracted fibres can be used for making pure yarns or blended yarns.