Recycling of Low Grade Clothing Waste - Oakdene Hollins

© Oakdene Hollins Ltd, Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd
Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute Ltd September 2006
aerogel, the thermal conductivity of the gas in an aerogel is about half that
of the gas in free space (see Appendix V).
Fabrics were manufactured from recovered waste fibres using the adapted
air‐laying approach. An important consideration when handling aerogels is
to avoid compression as they are brittle materials. Although little
mechanical damage to the aerogel was observed during air‐laying,
subsequent calendering tended to crush the aerogel particles. This was
overcome by creating a multi‐layer structure in which half of the recycled
fibre was laid down first, followed by the aerogel layer and finally the
remainder of the recycled fibre. This approach contained the aerogel in the
centre of the structure, partly protecting the aerogels during subsequent
processing (Figure 12).
Figure 12: Electron Micrograph of Silica Aerogel Particles
11.4 Odour Control Fabrics
11.4.1 Activated Carbon
The term activated carbon (AC) incorporates a vast range of carbon based
materials the exhibit a high degree of porosity. Industrially, activated
carbons have been used since the early 20 th Century, replacing bone‐char in
the sugar refining process 52 . Through its excellent adsorption properties,
activated carbon has been used to purify, decolourise, deodorise,
dechlorinate, detoxicate, filter, remove or modify salts, separate and
concentrate to permit recovery 53 .
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