Exciting new dye tech

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Exciting new dye tech

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tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45669
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 20 3:27 pm Post subject: Exciting new dye tech
Fashion creates huge environmental issues, this looks like sensible tech: https://colorifix.com/colorifix-solutions/

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 20 6:15 pm Post subject:

love it , making dyestuffs has been a nasty business for a long time, the product and using it is a tiny part of the impact of having colourful stuff.

i confess to learning my industrial chemistry in the dyestuff industry and it turned me green(in both senses, i did do other colours at times, the azo red hand and waxoline orange half face double in a week was "striking" if a little at odds with my politics.

organic chemistry is ace fun and fascinating but it can be dreadfully destructive, my final straw was inters one dropping a sulphonation mass that had gone very wrong to drain, if it set a new pan would be £200k the fine for dropping 30000 litres of mixed naphaline based organic chemicals at about 105% acidity into the river was £30k

the cost of risk vs profit analysis of harming and killing employees or the public is a bit chilling as well.far more chilling
i bailed out quite rapidly after a couple of years but i did learn some useful stuff as a research assistant for a top end nitration chemist

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46207
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Feb 01, 20 12:53 am Post subject:

part two of love it is if they make a living with what they have they can fund r and d for new products.

from what i remember cotton etc, wool, silk, and each of the "man made" fibres need different dyes, other stuff needs colour as well ink springs to mind as does food(ugggh)
i only worked in detail on a few things and those were intermediates rather than dyes most of the time but i got to know the industry quite a bit and the variety of end product types was huge.
they started me with sulphonations and then moved me to nitrations and hydrogenations which is rather trusting

lots of scope for bio dyes if they can make tweaks to match needs and the product is reliable

a biopunk blue tank might be greener than an indigo farm per kilo of pigment especially if the resulting dye lake is less toxic

if bugs can fairly neatly do what we did with a nitric acid plant, a sulphuric acid plant, lots of pots and pans, a hideous set of ingredients etc in a very big dystopian landscape well done to the bugs and all who feed them.

for how green is my bug dye? a major parameter is spent dye vat liquors as well as the make it side , so this seems twice nice.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15966

Posted: Sat Feb 01, 20 9:26 am Post subject:

I am always rather concerned about claims that bugs are 'harmless', and what happens when they get let out. Assuming they can be deactivated easily by high temperature or something before disposal, it seems good technology.

Organic chemistry is was my worst subject I am afraid. I failed on that once, and think I only just scraped it the second time. I was offered a chance to do a PhD in it, but that was more because the lecturer thought he could get on with me as part of the team rather than any particular skill. As I was a part timer already working in the microelectronics industry I declined, but nice to be asked.

I have dabbled with natural dyes, so don't know too much about synthetic ones except, as you say Dpack, they do contain some pretty nasty things. Remembering the lectures I had from environmental health when I set up a small plating line at work, and the result of the fine for your spillage, it seems they try to keep people from polluting by threats rather than action.

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