Benni inger rea ady for th he new c carbon fo ootprint regulatio ons

Jrgen Strhle Gerhard d Schramek k Benning ger AG, Uzw wil, Switzerland

w are finished f on n Benninge er systems have an ex xcellent im mpact Textile products which environme ent. Carbon n and water r footprints s have been evaluate ed for a wid de on the e range o of very diffe erent products, and a universal l calculatio on model ha as been develop ped. What particularly y stands o out is the lo ow water co onsumptio n of the Benninger finishing machines for knitw wear and woven w fabr rics. This in n turn resu ults in the low w energy co onsumption n and the e equivalent CO2 emiss sions. Benn ninger has also achieve ed excellen nt results in n terms of the consum mption of chemicals. c . The accur rate and con ntrolled co onsumption n of chemic cals has a beneficial effect for t the environ nment. The con ncept of the e 'carbon foo otprint' is us sed to describe the com mplete gree enhouse gas s emissio ons which ar re associate ed with a pr roduct, and it is quoted d as a CO2 e emission in grams of CO2 p per kilogram m of fabric. The 'water footprint' is the water equivalent e to the carbo on footprint and is usu ually quoted d in litres of water per kilogram k of fabric. f A wid de range of f very different greenhous se gas emit tters are inv volved throu ughout the lifecycle of a textile pro oduct. In the case e of cotton, the irrigatio on of the co otton plant accounts a for r the bulk of f the water bres results consum mption within n the lifecyc cle. By contr rast, the pro oduction of synthetic fib s in higher C CO2 emissio ons. During the daily us se of the te extiles, CO2 emissions a are caused and water is s used by th he home lau undry wash and dry pro ocess and even e the dis sposal of us sed textiles are associa ated with em missions. Em missions play a hugely y important role within the t lifecycle e assessme ent and can be seen in Fig. 1, whic ch shows a case study y for a dyed T-shirt. Howeve er, within the e framewor rk of an inte ernal study, Benninger has restrict ted itself to looking at the portion of the e emissions s it can influ uence, i.e. th he wet finishing proces ss.

Fig. 1: Life ecycle assessme ent for a T-Shirt t (100% cotton)

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CO2 consumers within w the te extile finish hing proce ess The CO O2 emissions s are cause ed directly b by the energ gy consume ers and indir rectly by the e operatin ng fluids and auxiliaries s (chemical s, lubricants etc.) whic ch are used. . mer Process / consum Singeing Washing / Heating energy Steamin ng / Reactio on clima Drying / Evaporatio on energy Fabric t transport Air cond ditioning tec chnology / Exhaust air Chemic cals mary source e of energy y used Prim Gas Stea am Stea am Gas / coal / stea am Elect ctricity Elect ctricity ----CO2 emissions Low High Moder rate High Low Low Low

Table 1: Energy consume ers in the finishin ng of cotton and d cotton blends

Fig. 2 shows the br reakdown of o CO2 emis sions for a classic textile finishing g process fo or a cotton trouser. With hin the indiv vidual proce ess steps, the individua al CO2 emis ssions are homoge eneously dis stributed throughout. If f we consider the facto ors giving ris se to the are accounted for the drying esses and 30% emissio ons, we can see that ar round 50% a d proce 3 for washing g and steam ming. The re emaining 20 0% are requ uired by the e chemicals used, the gas g required d for the sin ngeing proce ess and the e electricity. This distrib bution reflec cts a fully continuo ous finishing process. In the conv ventional finishing of kn nitwear by th he exhaust dyeing process s, the CO2 emissions e are dominate ed by the he eating of the water (up p to 90 l/kg) which account ts for 60%.

Fig. 2: Breakdown of CO2 emissions in fin nishing process ses cotton bottom m weight trouse er

ces Regional differenc gations in th he textile finishing indus stry have hi ighlighted some clear r regional Investig differences. The CO2 emission ns depend t to a very large extent on o the type of energy source s which is s used. This s applies bo oth to the he eating of dry ying equipm ment and als so to the generat tion of steam m. Whereas s mostly gas s and light oil o are used d as the sou urce of ener rgy in Europe, , coal is the e preferred energy e carr rier in Asia. For exampl le, the CO2 emissions
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associa ated with the e delivery of f a particula ar energy va alue with na atural gas a are only arou und 50% of those produ uced when coal is used d as the energy source e. While mo odern boiler r systems s are used in i the major rity of cases s in Europe, Asian prod ducers gene erally fall ba ack on simpler systems which are approximately y 25% less energy effic cient. There e are large regional r variation ns in the CO O2 emission ns associate ed with the generation of electricit ty - a factor which is more significant in spinning mills than iin textile finishing (shar re of energy y consumpt tion < 5%). Th he productio on of electric energy fro om hydroele ectric power stations re eflects bette er on the CO2 balance th han thermal power stat tions. Count tries in the western w EU U and South h America a, particular rly Brazil, do o better in t his regard than t countri ies in South hern Asia an nd Eastern n Asia, the Middle M East, the USA a and - in som me cases - in Eastern E Europe. sation of CO2 C emissions Optimis 1. O Optimising g the enviro onmental im mpact of existing e tex xtile proces sses

Benning ger has a sp pecialist tea am at its dis sposal which is on hand d at any tim me to analys se and optimise e textile pro oduction pro ocesses and d the machi inery and eq quipment w which are us sed, as well as to calculate e the corresponding ca rbon and water w footprints. Based on the fishb bone concept t of Japanes se quality expert e Kauro o Ishikawa, Benninger has develo oped a 5M concept c for asse essing the environment e tal compatib bility of a te extile produc ction facility y. Here, the methods and proce esses, machines, chem micals and auxiliary a ma aterials, the mass balance and the environmental behaviour of o the perso onnel (man) ) are indepe endently ass sessed and d optimise ed in terms of their env vironmental relevance. 2. n of interm mediate drying proces sses Elimination

od option is s to perform m the merce rizing proce ess accordin ng to the so o-called wet t/wet One goo process s without pre evious inter rmediate dry rying. To do this, a high h efficient sq queezing un nit and a waste e water heat ted wetting-out box is p placed befo ore the merc cerizing ran nge. The lye e concent tration is mo onitored and kept cons stant with th he aid of mo odern senso or systems and a lye man nagement programme. This type o of plant upgrade takes less than a year to pay y for itself. In the C CPB dyeing process the e reactive d dye is set by y allowing it to dwell an nd react at room r tempera ature. Thanks to modern CPB dye eing centres s with contro olled dyeing g conditions s and the deve elopments in terms of the dyes th emselves, this t method d for cellulos se fibres for r woven fabrics a and knitwea ar can be us sed without t restriction anywhere in the world . Savings are a made not only beca ause the dy ye is set at r room tempe erature, but also becau use the intermediate drying g process after the dye e application n on a hot flue is elimin nated. The heart h of a CPB d dyeing station is the pa adder. The Benninger Ksters Dye ePad is the e only colour padder -roller techn in the w world which features the e original Snology. This s makes it p possible to run r product t-specific co orrection pro ofiles for the e dye applic cation. As a result, this technique therefor re not only sets s the ben nchmark fro om an envir ronmental and a commer rcial point of o view, but also o in terms of f quality.

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Fig. 3: CPB B bleaching pro ocess

3.

High wash hing perform mance mea ans less fre esh water is i consume ed

Washing studies which w have long been p published sh how that a combination c n of counter rflow washing g and good liquor sepa aration can hugely redu uce water consumption n. Counterflow washing g is today se een as the state-of-the e-art and the erefore requ uires no furt rther explanation. Howeve er, despite the t significa ant improve ment in was shing performance, the e intensive liquor separat tion from on ne washing chamber to o the next is s hardly available from any machin ne builders s. The addit tional cost and a complex xity of such washing co ompartmen nts in terms of machine e design are often overstated. A h holistic cost assessmen nt shows th at this extra a effort is more than justifie ed. With str rict liquor se eparation, le ess dirt is ca arried into th he next was shing chambe er. This mea ans that using the sam me washing zones with liquor sepa aration and 4 l/kg washing g water, the e same washing result can be achieved as with 10 l/kg a and no liquo or separat tion (Fig. 4). . For years Benninger has based its washing systems o n the EXTR RACTA washing g principle. Liquor sepa aration is ac chieved bet tween the in ndividual wa ashing cham mbers by means of rollers s which are pressed on n pneumatic cally (Fig. 5). In additio on to huge water w savings s, a low wate er consump ption has a v very positiv ve effect on the energy balance. The T amount t of energy required r to heat up wa shing water r accounts for f around 3 30% on wov ven and around d 40% on kn nitwear. Rea ason enoug gh to use hig ghly efficien nt washing systems s fabrics a and - at t the same time t - reduc ce CO2 emis ssions.

Fig. 4: Washing curves wi ith different quantities of water and different wa ashing principle es

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The new w Benninge er washing box b is now e even more efficient in terms t of the e resources s which are used. Special attention a ha as been paid d to keeping g the runnin ng costs and d maintenance costs to o a minimum m.

Fig. 5: EXT TRACTA, liquor r separation between washing c chambers

4.

Recycling of valuable e materials s

The bes st known ap pplication is the recove ery of thermal energy fr rom hot was ste water. SoS called w water/water heat excha angers are u used here. This T method d can be us sed particula arly efficient tly on the co ontinuously operating B Benninger plants. p The required fre esh water is s heated up "just in time" by the overflowing waste e water usin ng the count terflow princ ciple. At the e same time the e waste wat ter is also cooled, whic ch would oth herwise nee ed to be don ne by other means in order r to comply with applica able discha rge legislation. The am mortisation p period for integrat ted heat exc changers on n Benninge er plants is le ess than six x months. A new o option for re ecycling resources can be opened d up by recy ycling waste e water usin ng filtration n techniques s. Modern chemicals c a and tempera ature-resista ant ceramic c membrane es are increasi ing the avai ilability of th hese techniq ques in the textile industry. Bennin nger has be een success sfully active e in this area a since 200 8. A recycling rate of up u to 90% o of the accum mulated quantity y of waste water w does more m than j ust help the e environme ental balanc ce though. The T purified waste wate er can be us sed in all ar reas of texti ile productio on. Althoug h membran ne filtration n systems are a electrica ally operated d, the overa all energy ba alance and therefore th he carbon footprint is reduced by y around 12 %. Under certain c circumstances it t is now alre eady possible e to run was ste water fre ee textile op perations (s so-called 'ze ero discharg ge').

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Fig. 6: Two o-stage membra ane filtration sys stem for recyclin ng water and en nergy

5.

C Case studies

Althoug gh the finishing of class sic woven fa abrics accor rding to the continuous s process st till offers huge po otential for savings s in te erms of wat ter and ene ergy consum mption (som me of these options o have alr ready been presented in this artic cle), this has s not been treated t like a case stud dy in the following. We have e carefully chosen c exam mples which h would intr roduce new w methods and a process ses to intere ested reade ers. ement of th he exhaust tion dyeing g process with w contin nuous proc cesses Replace Despite e the massiv ve efforts of f machine d designers to o reduce the e liquor ratio o, the finishing of knitwea ar by exhaus st dyeing in jet dyeing machines still s requires s large amou er and unts of wate therefor re also large e amounts of o energy. B By contrast, , in addition to quality b benefits the e continuo ous open width w finishin ng process a also offers savings par rticularly in terms of wa ater and energy. In continuo ous mode, CO C 2 emissio ons can be reduced by y nearly 2/3 in comparison to exhaust t dyeing pro ocesses (liquor ratio of f 1:7). The TRIKOFLEX T X bleaching and washin ng plants o offered by Benninger B and the Benn ninger Kst ters DyePad d are perfec ctly suited fo or this type of a application. .

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Fig. 7: Car rbon Emission of o conventional and a continuous finishing of knit twear

The adv vantages of f dyeing terr ry towelling using the continuous c method m follo ow the sam me patterns s as knitwea ar. Here again, the cha angeover to o the new te echnology h has been initiated all around the world d. Large-sc cale internat tional manu ufacturers of f terry towe elling have already a invested d in Benning ger plants and a are now w profiting not n only from m the low co onsumption n figures, but can also report t with pride that CO2 em missions ha ave been red duced by m more than 50 0%.

Fig. 8: Ene ergy and water savings s with con ntinuous finishin ng of terry towelling

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Zero-discharge te extile opera ations The Kyo oto Protoco ol sets out binding targe ets and time e frames for r emissions s of greenho ouse gases. T The textile industry i can n also do its s bit. Detaile ed and accu urate analys sis of the consum mers is follow wed by optimisation of water and energy consumption. T The continu uous dyeing a and finishin ng processe es for textile es will help here, h and it will be nece essary to re eplace exhaust t dyeing pro ocesses. No ot only does s Benninger r have the necessary n e expertise to calculat te carbon an nd water footprints for different fin nishing techniques and processes, but it also offe ers machine es which ar re particular rly efficient in their use of water an nd energy. One O er and ener particula ar highlight is the recyc cling of wate rgy from Be enninger pla ants, with th he aid of which it t is now pos ssible to refine textile sy ystems to the stage wh here the dis scharge of waste w water is s reduced to o zero.

For furt ther inform mation plea ase contact t: Jrgen Strhle CTO Benning ger AG 9240 Uz zwil, Switze erland T +41 7 71 955 86 03 3 F +41 7 71 955 86 91 juergen.stroehle@benningerg group.com www.be enningergro oup.com Gerhard d Schramek k Technology TF Benning ger AG 9240 Uz zwil, Switze erland T +41 7 71 955 86 21 F +41 7 71 955 86 91 gerhard d.schramek@ @benninge ergroup.com m www.be enningergro oup.com

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