Enzyme Washing of Garments with PERIZYM Cellulases

Modern enzymatic stone washing developed from classical stone washing with pumice stones. Initially, cotton jeans were only available in dark indigo. Blue denim pants and jackets obtained their desired brighter used look through regular wearing and washing. In the 1970s there has been a trend to achieve special bleaching effects with household detergents in the bathtub. In the 1980s fashion brands started selling jeans wear with stonewash effects which had undergone factory washing. Originally, these stone-washed jeans were produced on drum washing machines by laundering them with pumice stones. The stones mechanically abraded the blue indigo dyestuff from the fibers which created the typical stone wash effect.

Today, you can buy jeans in countless washings and styles. In order to increase the abrasion and bleaching effects and to reduce the process times as well as the mechanical damage at the same time, today special enzymes replaced the use of pumice stones. For the challenging fashionable applications in the garment sector we developed PERIZYM cellulase and laccase formulations for enzyme washing.