Scouring of flax rove with the aid of enzymes

Linen is the yarn or the fabrics made from fibres of the flax plant (Linum usitatissumum), which, like other bast fibre crops, can be grown in moderate climates and needs low input of agrochemicals to give high yields. Before cotton took over as the main plant-derived textile material, linen was one of the most important source of textile fibres. Following a few decades of almost abandonment, flax fibres are being re-evaluated thanks to the unique features of freshness, comfort and elegance of linen apparels, sheets, towels and other household textile items. However, flax processing into yarn essentially still follows traditional methodologies. We have reinvestigated the effects of several well characterized, mostly recombinant, industrial enzymes on raw flax rove (on a pilot scale from four times 1 kg spools up to 130 kg of material) as an alternative to chemical scouring, followed by a single bleaching step and by yarn wet mechanical spinning. After spinning, all relevant yarn parameters were measured and evaluated (e.g., resistance, stretching, percentage of neps, etc.). In the present work, we demonstrate the advantages of scouring with the enzymes tested, used under mild reaction conditions, in comparison with traditional chemical scouring. The decreasing order of effectiveness was: pectinase>xylanase=galactomannanase=protease>lipase>or=laccase. A simple and straightforward scheme of rove biopreparation and bleaching is proposed, followed by wet spinning to yield a high quality linen yarn.