content of the cotton may be varied but is normally the equilibrium value at ambient conditions no drying or humidification step is necessary the method of bleaching the cotton according to the instant process involves merely contacting the above bleaching solution with the cotton fiber bleaching is very rapid and occurs within a matter of from a few seconds up to a few minutes e g up to about an hour at ambient temperatures temperatures of from 0 u00b0 up to the boiling point of the inert liquid solvent may be used but temperatures of from about 20 u00b0 up to about 60 u00b0 are preferred and ambient temperature is most preferred after the cotton is bleached the bleaching solution is removed from the fiber by conventional techniques normally by filtration under reduced pressure the drying step involves merely heating the fiber at an elevated temperature to drive off any residual solvent this is normally done by using superheated vapors of a chlorinated hydrocarbon solvent such as 1 1 1 trichloroethane in the closed loop type processes which are conventional in dry cleaning in this manner the cotton fibers are dried and the solvent is recycled the instant process has a major advantage over prior art bleaching processes in that it can be conducted as a batch or a continuous closed loop process in which all the solvents are recycled and recovered.