The regular practice of using sodium chloride to preserve raw animal skin triggers increasing salinity and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the surface and groundwater during rehydration soaking operations. The process disrupts the lives of animals, plants, and human beings. This paper is focused on the phytobased short-term preservation of goatskin to reduce salinity in tannery soaking operations. The indigenous Persicaria hydropiper leaf was investigated to assess the preservation of animal skin to diminish salinity and TDS of tannery soaking wastewater. Methanol extracted leaf was characterized by GC-MS and FTIR for chemical composition analysis and a liated functional groups. Fresh goatskins were preserved at the preliminary, laboratory, and pilot-scale scenarios to establish the best possible mixture, monitor the moisture and nitrogen content, shrinkage temperature, microorganism analysis, and pollution load at each level. The processed leathers derived from the preserved skins with an optimal mixture of 10% leaf paste with 8% salt and conventional 50% salt were tested for their physical strength.Finally, the modi cation in ber structure due to the varieties of preserving chemicals was evaluated through a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and detected insigni cant variation of leather bers. The ndings reported in this study can be applied to the industrial level and remove certain amounts of salinity and TDS from tannery soaking wastewater.
HighlightsLeaf paste of Persicaria hydropiper is used for eco-friendly goatskin preservation Signi cant reduction of chloride, TDS, BOD and COD in soaking wastewater Fiber structures of optimized experimental and control leathers are similar
Globally, in wet-salting preservation, common salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is generally practiced for the raw animal skin which emits a huge amount of chloride-containing wastewater affecting groundwater quality, human and plant life. Chlorides in tannery wastewater encourage salt-free or less-salt preservation methods of raw skin. In this study, an alternative salt-free ‘green method’ has been described for goatskin preservation with rapidly growing obnoxious weeds Sphagneticola trilobata leaf. The ‘green leaf paste’ was applied on the flesh side of the raw goatskin and compared with conventional wet-salting (50% NaCl) method for 28 days. Different parameters of both sample like moisture, nitrogen, hydrothermal stability, and bacterial growth were periodically assessed and compared. Shoe upper leather was produced from both preserved goatskins. After comparing with standards, the physical properties like tensile strength, elongation at break, bursting strength satisfied the standard requirements. SEM images showed no deterioration to the fiber structure of both samples. Moreover, the suggested method reduces the pollution loads: chloride, total dissolved solids, biochemical oxygen demand, and chemical oxygen demand by 98.04%, 92.9%, 90.2%, and 85.5%, respectively. The overall assessment recommends that the salt-free ‘green method’ utilizing S. trilobata leaf paste could be an attractive system over the conventional wet-salting method. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-02-03 Full Text: PDF
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