Natural fibers production

The domination of PET is likely to continue so long as the raw material costs remain low, and these are currently driven by the cost of oil. Although synthetic fibers use only 1 % of the petroleum stream, they are in competition for that resource with fuels which use up to 50 times as much. Chemical producers already have efforts in place to supply raw materials for PET from renewable biological sources, so it is possible that even the increasing cost of oil will not diminish the dominance of polyester. When contrasted with increasing costs of land and resources for natural fiber production, as food for an increasing population competes for the same land, the use of PET fibers will likely become even more prevalent than today. 

The natural fiber industries employ worldwide millions of people, especially in developing countries and their products are processed in many small and large industries. The promotion of the use of natural fibers as a CO2 neutral resource could contribute to a reduction of climate-endangering gases, and the year 2009 has been assigned by the UN to be the international year of natural fibers. Production of man-made fiber from cellulose (cellulosics), of which rayon accounts for by far the largest portion, was 3.5 million tormes in 2008. Cotton production has grown steadily. It is estimated to reach 25 million tons in the season 2010/2011. 

Table 1.1 Factors effecting fiber quality at various stages of natural fiber production. Reprinted with permission from [18]. Copyright 2012 Elsevier.

One of the most thoroughly researched applications of NIR to textile substrates is the measurement of substrate moisture content. Most of the textile moisture applications are for natural fiber products — wool, cotton, and so forth. For synthetic textile products, Elliott and coworkers [32] studied the spectral locations and the spectral influence of water on synthetic fiber spectra. Rodgers [17,33] measured the moisture content of nylon fibers by NIR spectroscopy both in the laboratory and at-line/ pseudo on-line. 

In general, the geometric properties of the natural fibers are highly variable from fiber to fiber, both within a given lot and among lots of the same fiber type. In the synthetic fibers, the geometric properties are extremely uniform in view of the production control possible in a chemical plant but not in an agricultural product. 

Staple is produced by cutting a crimped tow into short lengths (usually 4—5 cm) resembling short, natural fibers. Acetate and triacetate staple are shipped in 180—366 kg bales, but production is quite limited. Conventional staple-processing technology appHed to natural fibers is used to process acetate and triacetate staple into spun yam. 

Bags of various constmctions are used in the storage and transportation of dry chemicals. The choice of which type of bag to use should be based on the needs of the product for adequate protection and the requirements of the distribution network. To a certain degree, bags can be custom-made for a particular product indeed, almost any shipping requirement can be satisfied by one of many combinations of paper, plastic, and natural fibers incorporated in the design of bags. 

There has been a rapid growth of the demand for plastics from less than 20 billion pounds in 1970 to nearly 50 billion pounds consumed in the United States in 1986, mostly due to the substitution of traditional raw materials. All over the world, plastics have replaced metals, glass, ceramics, wood papers, and natural fibers in a wide variety of industries including packaging, consumer products, automobiles, building and construction, electronics and electrical equipment, appliances, furniture, piping, and heavy industrial equipment [57-121]. Consumption patterns of PBAs in some countries are shown in Tabies 1 and 2. 

Seventy years ago, nearly all resources for the production of commodities and many technical products were materials derived from natural textiles. Textiles, ropes, canvas, and paper were made of local natural fibers, such as flax and hemp. Some of them are still used today. In 1908, the first composite materials were applied for the fabrication of big quantities of sheets, tubes, and pipes in electrotechnical usage (paper or cotton as reinforcement in sheets made of phenol- or melamine-formaldehyde resins). In 1896, for example, airplane seats and fuel tanks were made of natural fibers with a small content of polymeric binders [1]. 

Analog-to-glass fibers silanes are used as coupling agents for natural fiber polymer composites. For example, the treatment of wood fibers with product A-175 improves wood dimensional stability [53]. In contrast, a decrease of mechanical properties was observed for coir-UP composites after a fiber modification with di-chloromethylvinyl silane [54]. The treatment of mercer-... 

With the largest turnover, GMT is certainly the most important semi-product in the group of reinforced thermoplastics. A special production process for natural fiber-reinforced PP semi-products (NMT) has been de-... 

Extrusion press processing (express processing) was developed for the production of flax fiber-reinforced PP at the research center of Daimler Benz (Ulm, Germany) [62]. In this processing, natural fiber nonwovens and thermoplastic melt-films are alternatively deposited in a tempered molding tool and molded afterwards. The thermoplastic melt-films are laid on by a mobile extruder. If thi.s process is optimally adapted to the element, a single passage by the extruder suffices. The structural order consists of three layers two layers of... 

The mechanical and physical properties of natural fibers vary considerably, as it is with all natural products. These properties are determined by the chemical and structural composition, which depend on the fiber type and growth circumstances. With this cellulose, the main component of all natural fibers varies from fiber to fiber. 

Polyester fibers can be blended with natural fibers such as cotton and wool. The products have better qualities and are used for men s and women s wear, pillow cases, and bedspreads. Fiberfill, made from polyesters, is used in mattresses, pillows, and sleeping bags. High-tenacity polymers for tire cord reinforcement are equivalent in strength to nylon tire cords and are superior because they do not flat spot. V-belts and fire hoses made from industrial filaments are another market for polyesters. 

A weed, which is a form of a natural resource, is simply a living organism whose presence conflicts with the interests of people. Undesirable as they may be, weed species are natural occurrences in the agricultural ecosystems created by man s food and fiber production. Over 300,000 species of plants inhabit the earth, but only 30,000 of these are weeds. About 1,800 weed species cause serious economic losses in crop production, and about 300 weed species are serious in cultivated crops throughout the world. Most cultivated crops are plagued by 10 to 30 weed species that must be controlled to avoid yield reductions (1). 

Besides its biological significance, the silkworm has economic value. Silk has been a major natural fiber used in textile production for millennia. By utilizing CBP, coloration of a natural fiber by transport of a natural pigment based on molecular genetic engineering has been achieved (Sakudoh et al. 2007). Determination of other genes for cocoon color may lead to the ability to produce custom-colored silks, which may have an impact on the textile industry. 

However, the process is very complex and involves several intermediates such as chlorophyll (of which there is more than one type). Chlorophylls are porphyrins that contain magnesium. The growth of plants is responsible for the production of oxygen in the atmosphere as well as food and natural fibers. 

China. See also People s Republic of China acrylic fiber production in, 11.T89, 220 adhesive joint ventures, 1 526 advanced materials research, 1 696 aquaculture history, 3 183 aquaculture production, 3 189t ascorbic acid synthesis in, 25 754 demand for oil in, 23 530 nanocomposite development, 1 717 natural graphite in, 12 780 oil recovery program in, 23 534 olefin fiber production in, 11 243 production and consumption of regenerated cellulose fibers in,... 

Expansion of synthetic fiber production is crucial if the textile industry is to supply more and better clothing to consumers. Synthetics will substitute for natural homegrown cotton, wool or silk in the production of textiles and thus release land previously devoted to cotton, for food production. Cotton cloth production at the 1980 level of 12 billion square meters is insufficient to meet domestic demand, and is still rationed. 

PTT fibers and yams have bulk, resiliency, stretch-recovery, softness, hand and drape, properties which are similar to those of nylons and much better than those of PET. Such materials are inherently resistant to most stains which are acidic in nature because they not have dye sites. They also have a lower static propensity than nylons. PTT fibers are dyed with disperse dyes but at a lower temperature than PET because of the polymer s lower Tt. The combinations of these properties are attractive to carpet and textile manufacturers in some applications where PTT could replace nylon or PET. PTT also offers the potential of creating new fiber products by using the unique combinations of these properties not found in either nylon or PET alone. 

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