Pollution Prevention: Detecting Metal And Organic Trace Impurities

Instrument Type Detection Umit (mg/L) Introduction Because of the difficulty and cost of treating certain types of wastes, pollution prevention has become an important method of environmental protection for the textile industry.'* Extensive attention has been focused on the selection and use of chemical specialties and their role in pollution prevent i ~ n . ~ ~ Proper raw material selection, product/faciIity/process design principles, and other techniques for preventing pollution are widely practiced in the textile industry.' However, little information has been made available to the textile industry about one very important pollutant source: trace impurities in high-volume commodity raw materials. Trace impurities in high volume raw materials (e.g., fibers, salt, warp size, and buffers) contribute to air and water pollution as seemingly "phantom" sources. Metals, VOC's, TAP'S and HAP'S toxic organics and other such offensive materials are present at trace levels. But when raw materials are used in high volume (typically, millions of pounds per month in commercial textile operations), trace impurities can contribute significantly to pollution. In this article we identify trace impurities in one type of high volume raw material-i.e. fibers. From the natural fibers, two sources of cotton fibers and one source of wool fiber are studied; and from the synthetic fibers, two brands of polyester, an acrylic, and a nylon 6 fiber are studied. The determination of trace impurities is difficult, and one very important outcome of this work is the evaluation of analytical methods for highest accuracy.