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FAQS (8)
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Q01What's the dyeing mechanism of ECOHUES™ Waterless Dyeing Technology?Due to the absence of water in the ECOHUES™ dyeing process, the technology effectively avoids the hydrolysis of dyes, achieving efficient and high-quality dyeing. Moreover, the altered dyeing mechanism eliminates the need for dyeing promoters, achieving salt-free reactive dyeing. Currently, the fixation rate with ECOHUES™ technology exceeds 97% (compared to an average fixation rate of around 60% for conventional water-based dyeing), significantly improving the utilization rate of dyes. ECOHUES™ technology also eliminates the soaping process after dyeing, greatly saving water usage, simplifying and shortening the dyeing process, improving dyeing accuracy and the first-pass yield of dyeing.
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Q02Does the ECOHUES™ Waterless Dyeing Technology completely avoid the use of water during the dyeing process?The complete water-based reactive dyeing process includes pre-treatment (removing impurities such as wax and pectin), dyeing (coloring), post-treatment (rinsing), and finishing (fixation and softening). Substantial amount of water is used in coloring and rinsing/ washing processes of dyeing.
ECOHUES™ technology does not use any water during dyeing (coloring) and thus eliminates the need for post-treatment (rinsing). For the medium to dark colors, pre-treatment (removing impurities) is generally not required as well with ECOHUES™, significantly reducing the water consumption. Only a small amount of water is required, for adding alkali and finishing processes (fixation and softening), which can be recycled. -
Q03Are there any limitations to the material and dyeing forms?ECOHUES™ Waterless Dyeing technology can be applied to materials that are traditionally dyed using the reactive dye system. This includes cellulose fibers such as cotton, linen, viscose, and more.
The technology is suitable for various dyeing forms, including fiber dyeing, yarn dyeing, fabric dyeing, and garment dyeing. At present, our first industrial scale equipment primarily focuses on coned dyeing for cellulose yarn. -
Q04What's the advantage of ECOHUES™ technology on chemical consumption, water consumption and energy consumption when compared to traditional water-based dyeing?ECOHUES™ waterless dyeing technology uses zero water and zero salt during the dyeing process, resulting in around 73% reduction in chemical consumption and a 40% decrease in dye usage compared to traditional water-based dyeing. This technology saves 95% of water in the entire process and reduces dyeing time to 6-8 hours, resulting in a production efficiency increase of about 50%.
Traditional water-based dyeing requires multiple heating and washing cycles, leading to higher energy consumption. In ECOHUES™ waterless dyeing, energy is needed to recycle and reuse solvents. Nonetheless, the comprehensive energy consumption of ECOHUES™ technology is around 9% lower than traditional water-based dyeing as verified by globally recognized third party testing organization(Conventional water-based dyeing produces a large amount of wastewater, and the energy consumption of its treatment process has not been included in the above calculation, while the energy consumption of solvent recovery in ECOHUES™ is already included.) -
Q05Will this technology cause any other environmental pollution?ECOHUES™ waterless technology achieves an exceptional solvent recycling rate of up to 99.8%, and it generates no wastewater during the dyeing process. Any solid waste produced after production is minimal.
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Q06About the Certification and Test Reports of ECOHUES™ Waterless Dyeing technology.ECOHUES™ technology had obtained OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certification and Chinese GB31701 certification, meeting safety requirements for baby products.
ECOHUES™ Waterless Dyeing technology is a part of the 2017 national Key Technology Research and Development Special Projects, which is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. In December 2021, the project successfully obtained certification for its technical capacity and industrialization scale and passed the final review and evaluation conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. Furthermore, it was evaluated by an expert team from the China Textile Industry Federation and recognized as an internationally leading technology.
There are 15 authorized core patents, covering the solvent formulation of ECOHUES™ technology, dyeing and solvent recovery machines, production control processes, etc. -
Q07Can the dyes used in conventional water-based dyeing be used in ECOHUES™ technology?Yes, our ECOHUES™ technology applies to general reactive dyestuff, but a treatment is required on the reactive dyes.
Currently, the suppliers provide conventional reactive dyes that contain salts as dyeing accelerator or promoter. However, as ECOHUES™ technology does not need salt, desalination of dyestuff is needed before use.
Most of the dyestuff manufacturers can provided desalinated dyestuff; otherwise we also have a list of recommended dyestuff providers that can provide such option. -
Q08Are the dyeing equipment, such as dyeing vats, significantly different from conventional ones? Is it feasible to retrofit existing dyeing machines into waterless dyeing machines?Compared with the conventional water-based dyeing production line, the core differences with the ECOHUES™ production line are (1) the new solvent dyeing vat and (2) solvent recovery equipment, which are jointly developed and produced by our R&D team and equipment manufacturing partners. Conventional water-based dyeing lines can be converted to operate ECOHUES™ technology by adding the two aforementioned equipment, while the rest is common equipment in conventional yarn dyeing factories, such as winding and drying machines.
Conventional water-based dyeing vats, although similar in appearance to ECOHUES™ waterless dyeing vats, have different built-in equipment, sealing systems, control systems, and dye liquor circulation systems, and generally cannot be converted into ECOHUES™ waterless dyeing vats.