Estudio de la reducción del consumo de agua en el proceso de lavado enzimático de pantalones denim mediante combinación de etapas

Abstract

This work was carried out at "El Laboratorio del Denim", a company based in Ambato. The conventional process used in the company for a complete denim wash is evaluated through a baseline study. Subsequently, the operating conditions to combine the washing process are determined by performing five lab tests, the results of the conventional process and the combined process are compared. For the first lab test, two washing steps are combined in the same bath, the following lab tests combine more washing steps by modifying the operating conditions: pH, time, chemical dosage and temperature as needed. A combined washing process is developed by using the results of the previous tests and then evaluated by a pilot test. The environmental and productive benefits of the proposed combined washing process is determined by comparing the new indicators as well as the washed denim pants quality. The results show that the denim washing process with combined steps in the same bath is viable, the quality evaluation of the garment treated by the combined process have an average score of 16.8 over 20 points, higher than the 15.6 obtained by the conventional process. There is not significant changes on the physical-mechanical properties of dimensional changes, weight change, load rupture and elongation of the garment. The combined process reduces water consumption by 70%, energy consumption by 52.85% and operating time by 18.88%.