Performance assessment of green practices in liming with reductive potential chemicals for environmental sustainability

Leather processings involved in isolation in pre-tanning stages generate large volumes of solid wastes and high strength wastewater which are major source of environmental pollution characterized by chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), chromium (III) and phenolics with high pH, strong odor and dark brown color. Leather industry wastewaters with high organic content and pollution load are generated from pre-tanning processes. Conventional pre-tanning process utilises chemicals which attributes to 50-60% of pollution load and alkaline effluent discharge of 70-80% toxicity. In our study, the best practices modelling and eco-compatible process shifts were the objectives for the decrement in high pollution load of large effluent portion for leather industry. Soaking, immunization and liming processes were carried out with reductive chemical additives and surfactants, fibre opening auxiliaries, enzyme based and enzyme assisted chemicals in the factories as an eco-friendly designed recipe. Studies were conducted in Bursa Leather Park, Turkey. The results revealed the advantages of time saving, cost effectivity and minimized pollution load compared to conventional process. Moreover, the designed process uses lower amount of alkaline chemicals and water, gives a very high quality pelts with open grain and yield in 50-55% lime split output with 2.2-2.4 mm thicknesses.