Biodegradable nonwovens

Nonwoven fabrics are flat, porous sheets or web structures that are made directly from separate fibers or from molten plastics or from plastic films by entangling fibers or filaments mechanically, thermally or chemically. Nonwovens can be produced from both natural and synthetic fibers or directly from polymers by a variety of techniques that involve web formation and bonding. Different polymers/fibers are more suited for one process than the other. All of the different techniques available for web formation and bonding are discussed in sufficient detail. 

Nonwovens are used almost everywhere, in agriculture, construction, military, clothing, home furnishing, travel and leisure, health care, personal care and household applications. Of these many applications that continue to grow, more than two-thirds of them are disposables, mostly of single-use type. 

The environmental impact of disposable products is becoming a major concern throughout the world in recent years [6-7], These disposable products are usually produced from traditional thermoplastic resins, such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyester (PET), polyamide (PA), polycarbonate (PC), which are not biodegradable. However, due to increasing environmental consciousness and demands of legislative authorities, the manufacture, use and removal of products made of such traditional polymers are considered more critically. The remedy to this problem could be found in the development of substitute products based on biodegradable, and ideally from natural and renewable materials. 

Natural fibers, such as cotton, kenaf, coir, jute, flax, sisal, hemp, and wood, etc., become the first choice due to their biodegradabihty. Some synthetic biodegradable fibers have also been used for nonwoven apphcations, including cellulose esters such as cellulose acetate, rayon, lyoceU, etc., polyesters such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(caprolactone) (PCL), poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV), Biomax, Biopol, polytetramethylene adipate-co-terephthalate (PTAT), etc., and water solubles such as poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), etc. 

Thus the target for biodegradable nonwovens is to replace synthetic fibers with biodegradable fibers in the disposable nonwovens. One group of disposable nonwovens is the wet laid pulp/polyester spunlaced fabrics mainly for industrial and professional wipe products. Another group of disposable nonwovens is 

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P. Ehret, Biodegradable nonwovens, ITB Nonwovens Industrial Textiles, 3,29-30,1996. 

Woodings, C., New Developments in Biodegradable Nonwovens , jttp // www.technical.net/NF/NF3/biodegradable.htm... 

JP Patent 11,117,164, Biodegradable nonwoven laminates of melt-blown nonwoven fabrics of aliphatic polyester fibers and spnnbonded nonwoven fabrics of urethane bond-containing butylene succinate copolymer fibers , Kawano, Akitaka Kin, Kasue, 1999. 

Mueller, Dieter, H., Biodegradable nonwovens - natural and polymer fibers, technology, properties , INTC 2003 Proceedings, Baltimore, Maryland, September... 

JP Patent 2000034657, Biodegradable nonwoven fabric filtering material for sink drain , Matsunaga, Mamiko Matsunaga, Atsushi, 2000. 

Similar to the bast fibres, fibres derived from plant leaves can also be formed into biodegradable nonwovens. One example of this is the Pinatex nonwoven, currendy used as a backing for imitation leather and produced from pineapple leaves, which are a waste material that are otherwise sent for disposal (Ananas-Anam, 2014). However, natural materials comprise only 3% of the fibre-based nonwovens market, and so, their combined impact on the environment is less of a concern than man-made materials (Wiertz, 2014). 

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