Growing Significance of Sugarcane in Textile & Clothing Industry
| SANAT MORARJI
The clothing and apparel production industry is an innovative industry. There is a variety of raw materials to choose from when it comes to manufacturing apparel. One of such unique raw materials that can astonish you when you know about it is, “sugarcane”. So, not only you can chew it but wear it through the clothing items made with it.
What Are The Major Popular Natural Fibers?
Even before man-made fibre was discovered, natural fibres were ruling the world of apparel. There are a number of natural fibres that are getting utilized for centuries and even after so much evolution, they are still in the prominence for making clothes. Some of the most popular sources of natural fibres are as follows:
- Jute bark
- Banana bark
- Palm leaves
- Screw pine leaves
- Sugarcane bagasse
- Seeds of cotton
- Sikki or madhurkati grass
- Cocoons of insects
Brief Introduction of Sugarcane Bagasse
With time, several innovative ideas came into existence as novel fibres got into demand in the textile industry. Sugarcane bagasse was also one of such innovative ideas. Sugarcane is primarily grown to extract sugar from its stalk and sugarcane bagasse is an abundant waste fibrous residue of it that found application in the apparel manufacturing industry.
Once the juice is extracted from sugarcanes, the remaining sugarcane fibre pulp is called bagasse. Up until recently, sugarcane bagasse was treated as a waste product and was often set ablaze. Although that residue has many more kinds of utilization and the major ones are mentioned below.
- Animal fodder
- Fuel for mill boilers
- Raw material for paper
- Production of ethanol
- Production of polypropylene composites
- Raw material in some types of building boards
The extraction of bagasse fibres from sugarcane comprises two different steps, that are,
mechanical separation and chemical extraction. Several procedures are further done with distinct parameters such as solutions of sodium hydroxide with different concentrations and time of reaction. Sugarcane bagasse is gaining further attention due to the following reasons.
- Environment-friendly disposal of sugarcane residues
- Enhance the profits of sugarcane-based industry
In the 2019-2020 crop year, global sugarcane production was approximately 166.18 million metric tons, which resulted in 50 million metric tons of bagasse. Since burning it creates pollutants and even after the above mentioned usages, a huge surplus amount could be used for a more useful purpose, that is, apparel manufacturing.
Sugarcane in Textile & Apparel Manufacturing
In the apparel industry, sugarcane bagasse is primarily utilized for the production of textile rayon fibres such as viscose, modal and lyocell. First, sugarcane bagasse is shredded, broken down with eco-friendly chemicals. When it acquires liquid form, it is shot at very high pressure through tiny holes, producing a long strand of fibre that is then cooled solidified and spun.
Since rayon is made mostly from organically occurring polymers, it is considered a semi-synthetic fibre. Sugarcane rayon has a delightful lustre since it is relatively glossier in appearance and feels more silk-like than wood pulp rayon when touched. Such characteristics make the apparel made with them comfortable to wear and nice in appearance.
What Makes Sugarcane Fibres Suitable For Apparel?
Apart from touch and appearance, there are many more features that make sugarcane fibre a suitable candidate for textile related requirements.
Optimal length of the fibre: The length of the fibre is a significant feature and sugarcane bagasse fibre is significantly long. A textile friendly fibre should have a length several hundred times the width while not being shorter than 6 to 12 mm. Such a ratio permits the twisting of fibres together to produce yarn as they hold together properly.
Tenacity or strength of fibre: For textile needs, fibres should be strong to withstand spinning and weaving processes and sugarcane fibre fulfils that parameter. Fibre strength is also recognised as 'tenacity'. It is the breaking load in grams divided by the linear density, here linear density is the mass or weight of a unit length of the fibre.
Sugarcane Jeans: A Reputed Manufacturer of Sugarcane Apparel
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