Seawater as an alternative to dye cotton fiber with reactive dyes

The textile industry is a sector completely dependent on water for its full functioning; on the other hand, water represents a very high cost in the production process. The textile chemical processing area is mainly responsible for the large consumption of water. On the opposite side of this high consumption there is an evident water crisis worldwide. That fact has led to many problems to textile companies, mainly for the preparation, dyeing and printing sectors. This present work focuses on an ecologically friendly alternative for cellulosic fiber dyeing processes using seawater. Dyeing cotton fabrics with reactive dye in three primary colors (blue, yellow and red) was performed, and the results compared with processes using distilled water. Samples dyed with seawater exhibit good uniformity, intense color (color strength – K/ S) and excellent washing and rubbing fastness properties compared to the conventional process. It was possible to observe also that the use of seawater did not affect the mechanical properties of the substrate. Thereby, it was verified that the use of seawater presents as a potential and important alternative to applications in the textile dyeing process.