Scouring

The cleaning part of the fabrics are involved in this process.

To remove pectic substances and cotton wax contained in cotton woven fabrics,the use of caustic soda (NaOH), strong alkali, is the most effective. The caustic soda has the effects of not only converting water-insoluble pectose contained in pectic substances into water-soluble pectic acid soda, but also of hydrolyzing (saponifying) cotton wax. However, a single use of the caustic soda does not provide enough penetration, emulsion, washing, and scouring powers, and so a surfactant is generally used together.

A chelating agent may also be used together to prevent insolubilization caused by calcium and magnesium
Also, a method of scouring with an enzyme instead of with the caustic soda is being considered in recent years.In this case, protopectinase is used for degrading pectin, and lipase and the like are used for degrading oil.