July 6, 20188 yr Would anyone happen to know where I can buy cellulase from in a non-industrial quantity? I want to soften some linen fabric and the two main constituents that make linen stiff are cellulose and pectin. Pectolase is easy enough to get hold of from home brewing shops and I'm running some linen through the washing machine with some at the moment to see how it gets on. When you buy enzyme washed linen, though, it's been treated with both pectolase and cellulase but it's also hideously expensive for a bit of linen, hence wanting to do it myself. I have quite a number of eager sewing friends awaiting the outcome of this experiment, so if I can find a source it would be great. Unfortunately, the stuff is commonly stocked (Amazon et al) is healthfood stuff and isn't what I'm after. Can anyone help?
July 6, 20188 yr There seem to be a few options on Ebay - How much are you looking for ? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cellulase-enzyme-powder-for-brewers-distillers-cooks-and-bakers/182970785292?hash=item2a99e89e0c%3Am%3AmskA3DOGmljKVdGCZpBqSWQ&var=690283741869 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50g-High-Alkaline-Cellulase-REVITALENZ-1000-CAS-No-9012-54-8-50-Grams-New/192533116929?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D52945%26meid%3D0330a4b6c726482aa9715fe7ecc6598c%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D182970785292%26itm%3D192533116929&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
July 6, 20188 yr @JSHarris our resident chemist will tell you how to get some, or make some and if your lucky how to not make an explosion while making some.
July 6, 20188 yr Author Don't tell anyone, but I rather enjoy explosions as long as I'm a safe distance from them. I'd rather not explode the washing machine, though, it could get a little messy and I'd really rather not try and explain it to the insurance company.
July 6, 20188 yr It's cheap enough to buy, and a bit of a pain to prep, as it involves growing a culture and then purifying it. I prefer simple bucket chemistry where you can just make stuff without the complication of growing cultures of stuff like aspergillus. The ebay above links look reasonable to me.
July 22, 20188 yr Author A brief update on this. My order of cellulase arrived last week and so I put my 3 metres of linen fabric onto a 70C wash with soak, total wash cycle time approx 30 hours 20 mins, with 50g of cellulase. It's done a great job of softening the linen up, but not entirely beating the crap out of it. This sort of linen comes in at around £8 per metre, but if I were to buy enzyme softened linen it costs anything between £20 and £26 per metre, the last time I looked, so it's well worth the effort.
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