| Cleaner Production in a Textile Company | Egypt | Prior to 1995 | Full scale |
MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES # 19
Background:
BTM, Bishara Textiles Manufacturing Co., is located in the industrial park Tenth of Ramadan City, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt. The company produces fashion garments for the men's and women's wear market. These garments are made from fabrics of wool, cotton, cotton/polyester, wool/acrylic and rayon. 75% of production is for the domestic market and approximately 25% for export.
The main unit operations are:
Fabric Preparation:
| Plaiting : The greige cloth is inspected and sewn together in preparation for the next operation. |
| Bleaching : The cloth travels through the preparation line twice. In the first process it is desized, washed and dried. In the second run it is bleached, washed and dried. |
| Mercerizing : Only the cotton fabrics are mercerized.The cloth is immersed in 20 to 30% caustic solution for a period of time and then washed clean. |
Printing and Dyeing:
| Flat bed printing |
| Roller bed printing |
| Jet dyeing |
| Jigger dyeing |
| Pad batch dyeing |
Treatment and Drying:
| Drying : After being dyed or printed, the cloth is dried on a stenter frame. Hot air is blown on the cloth as it travels in open width through the machine. Some fabrics are dried on an air lay-dryer. |
| Singeing : Some styles of cloth are passed over a gasoline flame to remove excess fibers from the cloth. |
| Washing : Printed cloth and pad batch dyed cloth must be washed. A rope washer with a pad and three washing units utilized for the operation. The cloth is then dried on are one of the stenter frames. |
| Finishing : The cloth is padded with a finish material such as a softener to enhance the feel of the cloth, and then dried on the tenter. |
| Sanforizing : Cotton fabrics must be sanforized to improve the shrinkage characteristics when garments are washed. The fabrics are sprayed with water and passed through a rubber blanket pressing against a hot cylinder. |
| Inspection : The cloth is inspected. Defects are removed before the cloth is cut and sewn into garments. |
Plant Services:
| Steam production : Steam is produced by an 8-ton-per-hour fire tube boiler and a 4-ton-per-hour water tube marine boiler. Also two boilers heat Dowtherm used for heating two Bruckner drying frames. |
| Water treatment : Water is purchased and is softened for use in the wet processing areas. Further treatment is provided for the boiler water. |
Cleaner Production Principle:
Process modification, Housekeeping,
Cleaner Production Application:
The diagnostic assessment identified 9 pollution prevention options:
Options 3 and 6 are planned for implementation. Option 4 will not be implemented, and all remaining options were implemented.
Environmental and Economic Benefits:
| Improved environmental conditions and a reduction in fire hazards. |
| An 85% reduction in water consumption, from 60 litres to 9.5 liters per kg of fabric produced. |
| An 18% reduction in fuel consumption (no. 6 fuel oil). |
The diagnostic assessment identified 9 pollution prevention actions saving BTM at least LE 315,000 in the first year for a total investment of about LE281,000.
Seven of these actions (1, 2, 5-9) yield savings of about LE 90,000 for cost of about LE 7,000. The majority of the total savings come from 2 recommendations (3, 4) costing about LE 200,000 and LE 75,000 having payback periods of 1 and 4 years respectively.
Constraints:
No constraints reported
Contacts:
Review Status:
This case study was submitted to UNEP IE by ECOMED, Agency for Sustainable Development of the Mediterranean Via di Porta Lavernale, 26, 00153 Roma, Italy, Tel : +39 6 5783564, Fax : +39 6 5781448.
It was reviewed by UNEP IE November, 1995. It has subsequently undergone a formal technical review in September 1998 by Dr. Prasad Modak, Environmental Management Centre, Mumbai, India.