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Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2008) 785–791

Cotton waste recycling: Quantitative and qualitative assessment


Mohamed Taher Halimi ∗ , Mohamed Ben Hassen ∗∗ , Faouzi Sakli ∗ ∗ ∗
Textile Research Unit of ISET Ksar-Hellal, B.P 68 Ksar Hellal 5070, Tunisia
Received 31 May 2007; received in revised form 7 November 2007; accepted 18 November 2007
Available online 30 January 2008

Abstract
The waste produced in a cotton textile mill is an important factor in determining the operating cost and therefore in influencing mill profits. In
this paper, we examine the waste percentage and the good fibre fraction for two cleaning machines and a card. The cleaning behaviour in spinning
preparation, of each waste, is predicted by determining the trash content and the preparatory processing. The quality of recovered fibres is discussed
and compared to other virgin cotton. In order to appreciate these fibres, we study the effect of cotton wastes on the rotor yarn quality. The results
indicate that generated wastes contain about 50% good fibre. This secondary raw material showed good cleanability and characteristics; therefore
it can be blended in a proportion between 15 and 25% without hardly noticeable changes in rotor yarn quality.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Cotton wastes; Recovered fibre; Cleaning behaviour; Quality

1. Introduction Moreover, they are used in the carded non-woven industry.


In spinning, when dealing with the blend (cotton waste/virgin
Environment protection and waste recycling have become fibres), we are faced with a problem which has many facets
two of the most important challenges facing the scientific and and which can only be optimized by taking account of several
industrial community. In the textile industry, the different tex- parameters at the same time. The evaluation of recovered fibre
tile processes create various waste materials in different stages characteristics allows the spinner to optimize the recovered frac-
such as fibre, sliver, yarn and woven. Textile production and con- tion of good fibre. In addition to fibre properties, the cleaning
sumption are continually increasing. Generally, waste recycling behaviour in spinning preparation is very important for achiev-
requires accounting technical and economic considerations. ing the following benefits: evaluation of optimum blend (cotton
Environment studies have to address these two interests and waste/virgin fibre), optimization of machine setting in view of
suggest solutions to persuade manufacturers to treat waste. fibre/machine interaction and the elimination of quality prob-
In spite of the considerable technical improvements achieved lems before they appear in the final product (Stefan and Kuschel,
in blowroom machines, the generated waste in cotton spinning 1995).
contains a high portion of fibres (Paul, 1994; Leifeld, 1996). There are many published papers that have discussed the
Raw material prices, energy and labour costs have been continu- cleaning behaviour of virgin cotton and its characteristics. Nev-
ously rising for many years. Therefore, manufacturers attempt to ertheless, there are only a few published papers about recovered
improve the exploitation of the raw material by recovering fibres fibres quality and there are no published studies about cleaning
from waste and providing high cleaning efficiency in blowrooms behaviour of cotton waste. These kinds of studies are crucial to
and cards. encourage manufacturers to treat cotton waste.
The recovered fibres from cotton waste can be used to produce Peter Artz and Dipl-Ing (1995) considered the cleanabil-
blended yarns (cotton waste/virgin fibres) in different portions. ity as the easiness or the difficulty for cotton to get rid of its
impurities. Simultaneous research from the machinery industry
quantified five variables which could perfectly affect the clean-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +216 97 367 690; fax: +216 73 475 163.
∗∗
ing behaviour. These are: the initial trash and dust content, cotton
Co-corresponding author. Tel.: +216 73 475 900; fax: +216 22 930 424.
∗∗∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +216 73 475 900; fax: +216 73 502 288. characteristics, the type of machinery, production rate and cot-
E-mail addresses: taheeer@yahoo.fr (M.T. Halimi), benrayen@yahoo.fr ton moisture content (Leifeld, 1993; Steadman, 1997). On the
(M.B. Hassen), technopole.monastir@serst.rnrt.tn.fr (F. Sakli). other hand, the preparatory processing is defined as the necessary

0921-3449/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2007.11.009
786 M.T. Halimi et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2008) 785–791

spinning preparation to lead the cotton for given trash levels. It


mainly depends on the trash content and the cotton cleanability
(Peter Artz and Dipl-Ing, 1995).
In addition, the use of second raw material is related to the
spinning process, the quality of fibre and the yarn to be pro-
duced (Paul, 1994; Leifeld, 1996). Many published papers have
discussed the reuse of recovered fibres in spinning. Bruggeman
(1982) confirmed that these fibres can be reused for the open end
spinning. The requirements of quality imposed on the finished
products allow only the addition of tiny quantities of recov-
ered fibres. Therefore the proportion of secondary raw material
blended with primary material must be carefully studied. In
a study consecrated to the rotor spinning process, Wulfhorst
(1984) concluded that up to 20% of recovered fibres can be
blended with primary raw material without noticeable changes
in quality.
All those studies have provided some insight into the reuse
of cotton waste in a spinning mill, but there remains a need for
more quantitative analysis to identify the potential of changes in
yarn’s properties.
In order to encourage spinners to treat cotton wastes, we study
in this paper its cleaning behaviour and we try to appreciate the
recovered fibre quality. On the other hand, we evaluate the ratio
effect of recovered fibre on the quality parameters of the open
end yarn, such as: tenacity, regularity and elongation.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Waste characteristics

In this study, we are interested in cotton waste of different


origins, and collected from four Trützschler sections. The waste
collected from four different machines is considered in this anal-
ysis: two Trützschler cleaners (AXI-FLO and CVT4), Rieter
card flats, and under cards. Under card wastes include motes
and fly removed material. The control device “Micro Dust Trash
Analyser, MDTA3” is used to determine fibres and trash content
in each waste sample.
Several methods are used to determine the cleanability C (%)
(Schlichter and Kuschel, 1995). The simplest of them consists
of determining the relationship between the percentage of trash,
eliminated after one passage T1 of the sample in the control
device Micro Dust Trash Analyser “MDTA3”, and the total Ttotal
of this same sample (Peter Artz and Dipl-Ing, 1995). C-Factor
depends on successive passages of the control device “Uster-
MDTA 3”, more the quantity of trash T1 collected in the first
passage is raised more the cleanability of the waste is better.
Thus, the cleanability (C%) can be determined according to
T1
C(%) = × 100 (1)
Ttotal
In order to appreciate waste cleaning behaviour, we have to
determine the preparatory processing and the trash content. In
this work, we considered the preparatory processing as the num-
ber of passages necessary to lead the sample of waste to trash
content under 5%. This is because trash typically accounts for Fig. 1. The spinning process.
1–5% of baled cotton. A trash tester Shirley Analyser (consid-
M.T. Halimi et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2008) 785–791 787

Table 1
Spinning parameters and setting
Spinning parameters Value/setting

Rotor speed (tr/min) 52,500


Twist factor (α) 160
Yarn count (tex) 100
Rotor type T40
Opening roller speed (tr/min) 8800

Table 2
Waste and fibre content for an AXI-FLO cleaner
Line Waste (%) Fibre content in waste
sample (%)
Mean Standard Mean Standard
deviation deviation

1 2.50 0.21 41.83 1.29 Fig. 2. Trützschler cleaners (AXI-FLO). (1) Feeding mechanism, (2) roller
2 2.00 0.20 43.22 2.37 cleaner, and (3) waste separator.
3 1.80 0.26 40.48 2.67
4 2.21 0.31 41.98 2.76 Table 3
5 1.61 0.30 42.56 1.87 Waste and fibre content for CVT4 cleaner
6 1.80 0.21 45.40 2.43
Line Waste (%) Fibre content in
Mean 1.99 – 42.58 – waste sample (%)
Standard deviation 0.32 – 1.65 –
Mean Standard Mean Standard
deviation deviation
ered as a single roll cleaner) was used as a reference machine. 1 0.52 0.12 49.5 1.58
After that, the number of passage is determined in order to 2 0.50 0.11 50.79 1.47
compare wastes cleaning behaviours. 3 0.34 0.07 45.39 2.40
4 0.39 0.09 41.98 3.44
Once the waste fibre properties are analysed, important infor- 5 0.45 0.06 42.56 2.29
mation can be gained as far as the machine setting and quality 6 0.39 0.05 44.20 2.3
of the end product. The recovered fibres from different cotton
Mean 0.43 – 45.74 –
wastes were tested on both Uster HVI (Hight Volume Instru- Standard deviation 0.07 – 3.64 –
ment) and AFIS testers (Advanced Fiber Information System).

2.2. Spinning parameters The processing steps and machinery used are shown in Fig. 1.
The blend was processed after carding at the first passage in the
In order to study the effect of cotton waste on the rotor yarn drawing frame. Another passage was used in order to improve
quality, yarns with a count of 100 tex are produced with different the homogeneity of the blend. The linear density of the second
waste portion. In total, the waste percentage (Wp) in yarn takes drawing sliver was 4.45 ktex. Slivers were used to produce yarns
eight levels varying from 0 to 100%. After this, the mechanical on a Schlafhorst Autocorro rotor spinning machine. Ten spindles
properties of yarns were tested by the USTER TENSORAPID were used for each blend, these being selected at random within
and analysed. the machine. Spinning parameters are given in Table 1.

Fig. 3. Trützschler cleanomat (CVT4). (1) Feeding roller, (2) cotton, (3) roll clothed with pins, (4) roll with finer clothing, and (5) knife of separation.
788 M.T. Halimi et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2008) 785–791

Fig. 4. Location of card waste.

3. Results and discussion nate small trash particles (Fig. 3). Results illustrated in Table 3
indicate that CVT4 wastes are about 0.43% of treated mate-
3.1. Waste rate rial. From these wastes, we can recuperate 45% of good fibres.
Typically, recoverable fibres from AXI-FLO cleaner were about
3.1.1. AXI-FLO waste 32,700 Kg. These results confirm that generated wastes contain
The main functions of the opening and cleaning machines considerable rate of fibres (Table 3).
are the further separation of the fibre flocks and the removal of
contamination particles and dust from the cotton. The AXI-FLO
cleaner is designed to eliminate large trash particles at the first 3.1.3. Cards waste
stage of the blowroom (Fig. 2). Table 2 shows the waste and The main card tasks are the removal of dirt particles and short
fibre contents of the AXI-FLO cleaner. Six cleaning lines were fibres, fibre alignment and sliver formation. The major part of
used in the analysis and each data point shown in Table 2 is the carding action is accomplished between the tambour and the
the mean of 10 waste samples. For this machine, waste repre- flats whose teeth are positioned toward each other for carding
sents 2% of treated material, while the fibre rate is about 42%. action (Fig. 4). This causes separation into single fibres and the
The waste produced in the blowroom and carding sections of parallelization of the fibres. At the same time, contaminants and
a Tunisian cotton textile mill was about 850,000 kg in 2005. short fibres are removed. In this work, under card waste include
In this mill, waste mixture was passed into a filter in order motes and fly removed material. Six carding lines are concerned.
to reduce impurity which will be then compacted into bales. Results illustrated in Table 4 indicate that the sum of card wastes
Typically, recoverable fibre from AXI-FLO cleaner was about are about 4% of treated material. In flat and under card wastes, we
130,800 kg. can recover respectively 65 and 56% of fibre. Typically, recov-
erable fibres from AXI-FLO cleaner were about 261,600 Kg.
3.1.2. CVT4 waste In spite of the technical improvements in cards, these results
The Cleanomat CVT4 has four rollers cleaner consequently confirm that wastes generated contain a large fraction of good
it has a high cleaning efficiency and it’s designed to elimi- fibres.

Table 4
Waste and fibre content for card

Card Flatsa Under carda Flatsb Under cardb

Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation

C1 2.6 0.12 2.2 0.13 65.95 2.9 45.39 1.31


C2 2.4 0.30 2.3 0.19 64.43 2.52 50.26 1.37
C3 2.2 0.18 2 0.25 67.25 1.25 69.39 1.01
C4 2.8 0.13 1.8 0.15 60.02 2.85 57.87 1.85
C5 3.2 0.37 1.9 0.21 59.67 1.28 48.99 1.94
C6 3 0.22 1.7 0.11 73.5 2.28 64.49 2.23
Mean 2.70 1.98 65.14 56.07
Standard deviation 0.37 0.23 5.13 9.48
a Waste (%).
b Fibre content in waste sample (%).
M.T. Halimi et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2008) 785–791 789

Fig. 8. Mean length (mm) of wastes and initial cotton.

ties and the trash content are the main factors that reduce card
Fig. 5. Relationship between T% and passage number for under card and flat wastes cleanability and change the processing stages of spinning
wastes. Values presented as mean ± S.D. based on eight experimental measure-
preparation. Thus, these wastes need a more intense opening and
ments.
cleaning than other wastes.

3.3. Comparison of wastes cleanability

The different waste cleanability are compared to some com-


mercial cotton one, by using the cleanability factor C (%). Fig. 6
indicates that card wastes, after two passages on the Shirley
Analyser, the best cleanability factor (60%), was closer to the
Greek and Syrian cottons. Card wastes seem to contain less seed-
coat fragment than CVT4 and AXI-FLO wastes. This results can
Fig. 6. Comparison between the cleaning factors (C%) of machine waste and be explained by the doubled passage of card waste in the trash
commercial cottons. tester (Shirley Analyser). The practical interest of cleanability
factor determination is to avoid blending waste and virgin cotton
3.2. Preparatory processing comparison with different cleaning behaviour.

In this study, we are interested in determining the number 3.4. Recovered fibres quality
of passages necessary to produce a waste sample with under
5% trash content. Each point in Fig. 5 represents the mean of The neps count, mean length, short fibre content, and fibre
eight waste samples. In addition, AXI-FLO and CVT4 wastes maturity are the most important parameters that indicate cotton
need only one passage on the mono-cylinder cleaner to have a quality. The measure of these properties is very important to
trash content of 4.3%. While card wastes need two passages, as determine: the recovered fibres usefulness and their proportion
shown in Fig. 5. These results can be explained by the fact that in the end product.
card wastes contain more small particles (seed-coat fragments) Obviously, primary raw material has better properties than
which hang up fibres. Consequently, it is too hard to eliminate recovered fibres as given in Figs. 7–10. In fact, the comparison
by only one passage. However, the cleaner wastes (AXI-FLO of properties indicates that AXI-FLO and CVT4 wastes are very
and CVT4) contain larger particles which separate easily during close to the initial cotton properties especially for mean length,
the first passage. From these results it seems that fibre proper- short fibre content and maturity. These data are in agreement

Fig. 7. Neps count (g) of wastes and initial cotton. Fig. 9. Short fibre count (%) of wastes and initial cotton.
790 M.T. Halimi et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 52 (2008) 785–791

Fig. 10. Maturity of wastes and initial cotton.

Fig. 12. Effect of waste portion on rotor yarn irregularity.


with published literature (Bruggeman, 1982; Wulfhorst, 1984;
Klein, 1993), which suggests that these fibres can be reused for
the open-end spinning.

3.5. Comparison of yarn quality

Tenacity, elongation and irregularity are the most important


parameters which indicate the yarn quality. Fig. 11 shows that the
tenacity decreased by 26.3% when the waste content of the yarn
was increased to 100%. Obviously, the high short fibres count
and the low maturity of recovered fibres degrade mechanical
properties. On the other hand, the tenacity decreased by 11.6%
when the waste content was increased to 25%.
The yarn irregularity can be estimated by the coefficient of
variation (CV%) of the yarn count. The effect of waste content
Fig. 13. Effect of waste portion on rotor yarn elongation.
on the yarn irregularity is shown in Fig. 12. The yarn irregularity
was not affected by the waste content of the cotton when it was
below 25%. However, when the waste content of the cotton was 4. Conclusions
above 25%, the effect on the yarn irregularity was considerable
(Fig. 12). In agreement with published literature (Klein, 1993; This study mainly emphasizes the critical importance of
Jackowski et al., 2002), the yarn elongation is mainly related evaluating the fibre wastes and its characteristics through the
on raw material properties. As shown in Fig. 13, increasing the preparatory stage. In spite of the technical evolution of differ-
waste content of the cotton to 25% decreased the yarn elongation ent blowroom machines, the generated wastes contain a large
by 1.6%. It can be concluded that the introduction of 15 and fraction of good quality fibre. Results indicate that recovered
25% waste fibre into the cotton will not affect the tenacity, the fibres have a good cleanability which allows its blend with vir-
irregularity and the rotor yarn elongation. gin fibres. AXI-FLO and CVT4 wastes contain fibres with neps,
maturity, short count and mean length close to those of initial
cotton.
In addition, the study of waste influence on the quality of
the open end yarn indicates that the introduction of 25% of
waste does not alter the tenacity, the irregularity and the yarn
elongation.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the International company of tex-


tile SITEX Tunisia, the technical advice and support received
from Mr. Romdan Bouchraeit at the same company.

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