Low quality coarse wool from Italian sheep is a large biomass unavoidably joined to sheep farming and it is to be disposed or adequately managed. Management of shorn wool (from 14000 to 16000 tons/ year in Italy) mainly implies scouring processes and related costs. Waste wool scouring provides wool wax, further refied into lanolin, in 5-20% yield and washed low-quality coarse wools. Waste wool scouring would become profiable if scouring process optimization and further valorisation of lanolin could be associated to the scarcely remunerative non-textile uses of washed low-quality coarse wools. In this study optimization of waste wool scouring and wool wax/lanolin recovery by green solvent was carried out using cyclopentyl methyl ether in comparison with conventional solvents like diethyl ether and hexan. The extraction study shows that cyclopentyl methyl ether shows higher amount of grease extraction in comparison with conventional solvents. The presence of residual grease on wool samples after solvent extraction was analyzed using FT-IR spectroscopy and resulted in similar effiency of extraction in comparison with conventional solvents.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF WOOL GREASE EXTRACTION FROM ITALIAN SHEEP BY USING A GREEN SOLVENT
Parag Bhavsar;Marina Zoccola;Alessia Patrucco;Claudio Tonin;Giulia Dalla Fontana;
2021
Abstract
Low quality coarse wool from Italian sheep is a large biomass unavoidably joined to sheep farming and it is to be disposed or adequately managed. Management of shorn wool (from 14000 to 16000 tons/ year in Italy) mainly implies scouring processes and related costs. Waste wool scouring provides wool wax, further refied into lanolin, in 5-20% yield and washed low-quality coarse wools. Waste wool scouring would become profiable if scouring process optimization and further valorisation of lanolin could be associated to the scarcely remunerative non-textile uses of washed low-quality coarse wools. In this study optimization of waste wool scouring and wool wax/lanolin recovery by green solvent was carried out using cyclopentyl methyl ether in comparison with conventional solvents like diethyl ether and hexan. The extraction study shows that cyclopentyl methyl ether shows higher amount of grease extraction in comparison with conventional solvents. The presence of residual grease on wool samples after solvent extraction was analyzed using FT-IR spectroscopy and resulted in similar effiency of extraction in comparison with conventional solvents.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
