Reduction of Water Consumption in Leather Processing and an Investigation of the Leather Quality

Abstract

Extensive use of water in different industries particularly leather tanning has drawn attention in recent years. In this research, a new approach has been developed to reduce water consumption in the tanning industry. Four different experiments were carried out on raw goat skins by using various quantities of water which were much lower than the influx of water consumed in the conventional leather tanning processes. One control experiment was conducted in which the volume of water was used as 100% of the conventional method (37 m3/ton) in every step of leather processing. The experiments showed a reduction of 15%, 25%, 35%, and 50% in water consumption respectively from the control method used in the processing of raw leathers. The resulting goat leathers were examined with various physical tests such as tensile strength, percentage of elongation, stitch, tongue tear strengths etc. The results showed the presence of all significant qualities. The processed leathers were thermally stable and exhibited percentages of elongations in the range of 40.94% to 50.85% which were considerably higher than those (38.1%) observed with the conventional method. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) studies confirmed identical morphological and structural characteristics of all processed leathers. These methods of leather processing are environmentally friendly and suitable for large-scale industrial production. Efficient reduction of water use in raw leather processing may significantly decrease the toxic liquid waste and tannery pollution.

Recovery and Reuse of Chromium from Tan Yard Solid Waste in Leather Manufacturing

“…According to earlier research, vegetable re-tanned leather shrank at 86.34 °C, which is much lower than the information from processed goat leather [39]. Other similar studies conducted by Yorgancioglu et al and Ferdous et al also reported the shrinkage temperature of chrome-tanned leather which was 103.5 °C [40] and 105 to 110 °C [41]. Interestingly, the shrinkage temperatures of all manufactured goat leather from the present study were considerably higher than the data reported previously in the literature [40][41][42] following the conventional method which demonstrated that the leather processed with recovered basic chromium salts was hydrothermally more stable.…”