Watersaving Cleaning Processing of Sheep Wool and Eco-friendly Extraction of Lanolin

Abstract

Sheep wool, an important natural raw material for textile industry. This article propose a watersaving sheep wool cleaning processing. For each kilogram of wool, containing about 35% impurities, the water loss in washing is as low as 2.5 liters. Wool washing sewage with high content of COD (chemical oxygen demand), up to 20-30 g/L, is treated by neutral detergent and then a solid hydroxide (Calcium Hydroxide or Alum) with cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) in order to have a fast flocculation of solid waste. The COD content in wastewater can be as low as 352 mg/L. On the other hand, solid matter contains a large amount of high-value chemical oils, collectively known as lanolin, by extraction of solid matter in hot alcoholic solution (85% Ethanol,15% methanol) at 60 degrees Celsius. About 40 g of lanolin crude product is obtained.