Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Assignment
Final Assignment
Roll no. 69
SEMESTER: 6th
SECTION: B
DEPARTMENT: CHEMIST RY
Sr
no. Topics Page no.
1 Introduction to Leather 2
Bonded leather:
Bonded leather also called reconstituted leather, is a material that uses leather scraps
that are shredded and bonded together with polyurethane or latex onto a fiber mesh. The
amount of leather fibers in the mix varies from 10% to 90%, affecting the properties of the
product.
Stingray leather:
In Thailand, stingray leather is used in wallets and belts. Stingray leather is tough and
durable. The leather is often dyed black and covered with tiny round bumps in the natural pattern
of the back ridge of an animal. These bumps are then usually dyed white to highlight the
decoration. Stingray rawhide is also used as grips on Chinese swords, Scottish basket hilted
swords, and Japanese katanas. Stingray leather is also used for high abrasion areas in motorcycle
racing leathers (especially in gloves, where its high abrasion resistance helps prevent wear
through in the event of an accident.)
Environmental impact
Leather produces some environmental impact, most notably due to:
The carbon footprint of cattle rearing
Use of chemicals in the tanning process (e.g., chromium, formic acid, mercury and solvents)
Air pollution due to the transformation process (hydrogen sulfide during dehairing
and ammonia during de liming, solvent vapors)
Carbon footprint:
One estimate of the carbon footprint of leather goods is 0.51 kg of CO2 equivalent per
£1 of output at 2010 retail prices, or 0.71 kg CO2eq per £1 of output at 2010 industry prices.
Water footprint:
One ton of hide or skin generally produces 20 to 80 m3 of waste water, including
chromium levels of 100–400 mg/l, sulfide levels of 200–800 mg/l, high levels of fat and other
solid wastes, and notable pathogen contamination. Producers often add pesticides to protect hides
during transport. With solid wastes representing up to 70% of the wet weight of the original
hides, the tanning process represents a considerable strain on water treatment installations.[10]
Disposal:
Leather biodegrades slowly—taking 25 to 40 years to decompose. However, vinyl and
petrochemical-derived materials take 500 or more years to decompose.
Chemical waste disposal:
Tanning is especially polluting in countries where environmental regulations are
lax, such as in India, the world's largest producer and exporter of leather. To give an example of
an efficient pollution prevention system, chromium loads per produced tone are generally abated
from 8 kg to 1.5 kg. VOC emissions are typically reduced from 30 kg/t to 2 kg/t in a properly
managed facility. A review of the total pollution load decrease achievable according to
the United Nations Industrial Development Organization posts precise data on the abatement
achievable through industrially proven low-waste advanced methods, while noting, "even though
the chrome pollution load can be decreased by 94% on introducing advanced technologies, the
minimum residual load 0.15 kg/t raw hide can still cause difficulties when using landfills and
composting sludge from wastewater treatment on account of the regulations currently in force in
some countries."
Wastes of leather industry
Solid waste of tanning industry:
The conventional leather tanning technology is highly polluting as it produces large
amounts of organic and chemical pollutants. Wastes generated by tanneries pose a major challenge
to the environment. Anaerobic digestion of tannery wastes is an attractive method to recover
energy from tannery wastes.
According to conservative estimates, more than 600,000 tons per year of solid waste are generated
worldwide by leather industry and approximately 40–50% of the hides are lost to shavings and
trimmings. Everyday a huge quantity of solid waste, including trimmings of finished leather,
shaving dusts, hair, fleshing, trimming of raw hides and skins, are being produced from the
industries. Chromium, sulfur, oils and noxious gas (methane, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide) are
the elements of liquid, gas and solid waste of tannery industries.
Biogas from Tannery Wastes:
Anaerobic digestion (or bio methanation) systems are mature and proven processes that
have the potential to convert tannery wastes into energy efficiently, and achieve the goals of
pollution prevention/reduction, elimination of uncontrolled methane emissions and odor, recovery
of biomass energy potential as biogas, production of stabilized residue for use as low grade
fertilizer.
Anaerobic digestion:
Until now, biogas generation from tannery wastewater was considered that the complexity of the
waste water stream originating from tanneries in combination with the presence of chroming would
result in the poisoning of the process in a high loaded anaerobic reactor.
When the locally available industrial wastewater treatment plant is not provided by anaerobic
digester, a largescale digestion can be planned in regions accommodating a big cluster of tanneries,
if there is enough waste to make the facility economically attractive.
In this circumstance, an anaerobic co-digestion plant based on sludge and tanneries may be a
recommendable option, which reduces the quantity of landfilled waste and recovers its energy
potential. It can also incorporate any other domestic, industrial or agricultural wastes. Chrome-free
digested tannery sludge also has a definite value as a fertilizer based on its nutrient content.
Potential Applications of Biogas:
CHP systems cover a range of technologies but indicative energy outputs per m 3 of biogas are
approximately 1.7 kWh electricity and 2.5kWh heat. The combined production of electricity and
heat is highly desirable because it displaces non-renewable energy demand elsewhere and
therefore reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.
It is therefore necessary that the owners and managers of tanneries and effluent treatment plants
are fully aware of the dangers posed by this poisonous gas and take all preventive and
precautionary measures to protect the workforce from exposure to this gas. In the event of
accidental exposure of a worker, they should know how to deal with the situation.
UNIDO’s activities in the leather processing has as one of its important objectives, improvement
of occupational safety and health practices in tanneries and effluent treatment plants. Under this
objective, the project has been seeking to demonstrate in selected tanneries improvement practices
for better occupational health and safety of the workers.
Mechanical/manual removal of excess salt from wet salted hides and skins
Reverse osmosis (RO) of treated tannery effluent
Improved solar evaporation
Carbon dioxide (CO2) deliming in a small scale tannery to reduce ammonical nitrogen
Constructed wet land treatment system (reed beds) possibly resulting in nitrification/denitrification
Ultrafiltration
A study with preliminary estimates of costs of multistage evaporation system to recover salt from
reject generated by RO has also been prepared
In another study, the scope of replacement of secondary clarifier in the biological treatment stage
by ultrafiltration has been assessed.
REFERENCES:
http://dl.Leather industry.edu/ch105/lesson4 advancd concentrations.htm
https://socratic.org/questions/what-is leather
https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-wastes of leather industry-605419
https://sciencing.com/solid wastes -5194302.html
https://www.treatment of wastes of leather industry .com.au/partspm.html
http://.qora . com
https://definedterm.com