Textile processing runs through several distinct chemical stages before fabric reaches finished goods — pre-treatment, dyeing/bleaching, and finishing — each calling for a different set of chemicals.
Pre-Treatment and Scouring
Caustic soda is central to cotton mercerizing and scouring, improving dye uptake and giving fabric a characteristic lustre. See our guide on caustic soda grades for choosing between flakes and liquid lye for a continuous process.
Bleaching and Disinfection-Adjacent Chemistry
Hydrogen peroxide is widely used as a bleaching agent in textile processing, offering more controllable, less damaging bleaching than older chlorine-based methods for many fabric types. See Hydrogen Peroxide.
Dyeing Auxiliaries and Finishing
Sodium metabisulphite is used in textile processing as a reducing agent, including in discharge printing and as an antichlor step after bleaching. Optical brighteners — see CBS-X Optical Brightener and Tinopal Optical Brightener — are added at the finishing stage to make white and light-coloured fabric appear brighter than natural fibre alone would allow, by converting UV light to visible blue light.
Effluent Considerations
Textile processing effluent tends to carry significant colour, dissolved solids and sometimes heavy metal content from dyes, which is why textile units typically need a robust ETP — see our guide on chemicals for effluent treatment plants for the treatment chemistry involved.