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

Chrome tanning is the most popular and widely used method utilizing basic chromium salts in leather processing. Only 60-70% of these salts react with collagen to form leather. The rest remains unreacted being released as toxic waste and causing severe environmental pollution in many developing countries. In the current study, a significant approach was made to utilize solid waste with a clean environment perspective. The chromium was extracted as basic chromium sulfate using H2SO4 from tannery waste and reused in the leather manufacturing procedure. Extracted solid sludge was examined by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry and elemental analysis before and after the separation of chromium (III). It revealed that 97% of chromium was extracted from tan yard sludge. Recovered chromium sulfate was reused in goat skin processing. Batch experiments were carried out by applying recovered basic chromium sulfate, and a combination of fresh and recovered basic chromium sulfate solutions separately. Fresh basic chromium sulfate was used as the control method. The structure and morphology of the final processed leather were characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The identical structural morphologies of all processed leather were confirmed in the FESEM study. The physical and chemical characteristics of all finished leather were found very similar. The TGA analysis data proved that raw leather processed by recovered chromium is thermally more stable than others. These research findings signify a new potential effort of separating important chemicals from solid sludge and reusing them. This technique is simple, cost-effective, eco-friendly, and sustainable as it reduces environmental pollution from tannery chromium waste.