A Novel Approach towards Removal of Lipid Barrier from Wool Fibers’ Surface Using Thermophilic Lipase

The hydrophobic nature of wool caused by the surface lipid barrier impedes any wet processes of wool fibers. The conventional methods that utilize alkaline solutions for removing this lipid layer are deteriorative for the fiber. The use of enzymes in textile industry is one of the most rapidly growing fields in industrial enzymology because of eco-friendly and nontoxic characteristics. Therefore, this work is aimed at isolation of thermophilic strains from a soil sample in a hot region. The bacterial strain Bacillus aerius strain 24 K showed the maximum extracellular lipase activity (150 ± 1.03 U/ml) among the seven investigated strains. The locally produced thermophilic lipase enzyme was utilized in scouring as well as one-bath scouring and dyeing of wool. The effect of enzyme concentration, treatment temperature, and time on the dyeability of wool fibers with acid, reactive, and basic dyes was investigated. The results of this investigation proved that the extracted thermophilic lipase enzyme is an appropriate candidate for enhancing the dyeability of wool prior to the dyeing process. One-bath scouring and dyeing of wool were successfully conducted to save energy and water. Unlike the conventionally scoured wool, bio-scoured wool exhibits similar chemical composition and solubility parameters to those of untreated wool.