In Colombia, the largest percentage of tanneries are concentrated in the municipality of Cundinamarca, mainly in Villapinzón, a major study sites. Its discharges are sent  to the upper basin of the Bogotá River. The tanneries are among the industrial sectors that have the greatest negative impact on water resources, specifically in the unhairing process because the mass ratio 1: 1 is operated on the weight of the furs to work. In order to evaluate options to minimize the negative impacts generated on the Bogota river by high volumes of effluents (average capacity of 300 drums of fur bump, average weight of a fur 25 kg), this study evaluates the feasibility of reuse discharges generated in the unhairing process through physical chemical treatment, assuring not to affect the quality of the end product. The water recirculation on the unhairing process does not increase operational costs. Instead, it represents a savings and reduces the negative environmental impact generated, considering reuse a water volume of about 50%

Calle, Leonardo Emilio

Fúquene Yate, Diana Marcela

Manrique Perdomo, Jorge Orlando

Yate, Andrea Viviana

DIALNET

Reducing the environmental impact of unhairing process in colombia tanneries

e-Hemeroteca UNAD (Universidad Nacional Abierta)

Reducing of the enviRonmental impact of unhaiRing pRocess in colombian tanneRiesReducción del impacto ambiental del pRoceso  de depilación en cuRtiembRes colombianasdiana marcela fúquene 1, Jorge orlando manrique 2,  leonardo emilio calle 3, andrea viviana Yate 4 1 Magíster en ingeniería ambiental, candidato a Doctor en proyectos, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá – Colombia, 2 Especialista en ingeniería ambiental, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá – Colombia, 3 Magíster en ingeniería ambiental, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá – Colombia,4 Magíster en ingeniería química, Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, Bogotá – Colombia, 1 dimafuya@yahoo.com2 jomanriquep@unal.edu.co3 leonardocallep@yahoo.com4 anviyase1@hotmail.comabstractin colombia, the largest percentage of tanne-ries is located in cundinamarca, exactly in the municipality of Villapinzon, which is the focus of study because it uses the upper basin of the bogotá River as receiver source of wastewater discharge. the tanneries are one of the pro-ductive sectors that have the greatest negati-ve impact on the water resource, specifically, the unhairing process that uses 1:1 mass ratio (skin-water). based on this, the aim of this stu-dy was the evaluation of the impact of reusing the residual liquors generated in the unhairing process without altering the quality of the final product, through tests at pilot plant level of the process without sulfur and mixed to salted hi-des. the discharges generated by the process without sulfur were recirculated directly, while the mixed hire discharges had a pre-treatment of oxidation, coagulation and sedimentation, both discharges were monitored by measuring four physicochemical parameters of sanitary interest. the obtained results showed that the recirculation of the water on unhairing process did not increase the costs, by contrast, it re-presents savings and diminishes the negative environmental impact generated in the upper basin of the bogotá River, considering that the approximate volume of reuse of water is 50%, confirming the proposed hypothesis about the recirculation of effluents from this process.Keywords: Reduction of the environmental impact, reuse of hide discharges, leather qua-lity, unhairing process, tannery.Recibido: 19/02/2018aceptado: 30/05/2018area ambiental DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197  |  Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)Resumenten colombia, el mayor porcentaje de empresas curtidoras se ubican en Cundinamarca específi-camente en el municipio de Villapinzón, que es el eje de estudio, debido a que utiliza la cuenca alta del río bogotá como fuente receptora de los vertimientos que genera. las curtiembres son uno de los sectores productivos que ma-yor impacto negativo tienen sobre el recurso hídrico, específicamente, la etapa de pelam-bre que emplea una relación másica 1:1 (piel – agua). en función de esto, el objetivo de este proyecto fue la evaluación del impacto de re-utilizar los licores residuales generados en el proceso de pelambre sin alterar la calidad del producto final, mediante la realización de en-sayos a nivel de planta piloto del proceso de pelambre sin sulfuro y pelambre mixto a cueros vacunos salados. los vertimientos generados por el proceso sin sulfuro fueron recirculados directamente, mientras que a los vertimientos del pelambre mixto se les realizó un tratamien-to de oxidación, coagulación y sedimentación, ambos vertimientos fueron monitoreados me-diante la medición de cuatro parámetros fisi-coquímicos de interés sanitario. los resultados obtenidos permiten establecer que, la recircu-lación de las aguas de pelambre no incrementa los costos, por el contrario, presenta un ahorro y disminuye el impacto ambiental negativo ge-nerado en la cuenca alta del río bogotá, tenien-do en cuenta que el volumen aproximado de reutilización del agua es del 50%, confirmando la hipótesis planteada sobre la recirculación de los efluentes de este proceso.palabras clave: minimización del impacto ambiental, reutilización de vertimientos de pe-lambre, calidad del cuero, curtiembre.graphical abstractintroduciontanning is a process of transforming animal skins into leather through a sequence pro-cess that include chemical and mechanical steps in order to obtain a product resistant to microbial degradation, heat and moisture stress (alibardi & cossu, 2016). all over the Revista de investigación agraria y ambiental248Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)  |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197world, tannery industry generates high en-vironmental impacts, associated to air and water pollution problems, causing emissions with high biological and chemical oxygen de-mand and total suspended solids. (alibardi & cossu, 2016; sivagami, sakthivel, & nam-bi, 2017; martínez & Romero, 2018). in this way, propose alternatives to reduce polution is needed, as including an unhairing mixte or ecological process that allow the reduction of sodium sulphide quantities commonly used in the chemical formulation.europe has high production of leather and maintain strict controls for the preservation of the environment through clean and effi-cient production programs. in contrast, latin america has spend large amounts of money to repair the damages caused by tanneries (mar-tínez & Romero, 2018; dettmer, cavalli, ayub, & Gutterres, 2013). in colombia, around 80% of the total tanneries industries are in bogo-tá and cundinamarca, being Villapinzón one of the leading producers of leather nationwide (export type, webs and tulas). However, due to the proximity to bogotá River watershed, it is used as a receiver source of waste liquor without any previous treatment (numpaque & Viteri, 2016). in the leather industry, the ma-jor consumption of water occurs during the unhairing process with at least a mass ratio of 1:1. Villapinzón tanneries frequently use two types of unhairing methods given by a che-mical supply, a mixture that contain chemical and enzymatic compounds with sulphur, and a mixture without sulphur. although, some tanneries in Villapinzón in or-der to reduce the negative impact in the river, reuse the wastewater on tanning process for about 16 months. tanneries that produce ex-portation type leather, disagree with this tech-nique, arguming that this practice damage the leather’s quality (Fuquene, 2011). the aim of this study was to evaluate the dis-charges generated by each unhairing method in order to establish a methodology for asses-sing the effect of the reuse of these effluents on the tanning process and the possibility of discharge effluents in the Bogota River.carrillo neira & muñoz labrador (2014) stated that unhairing liquor could be reused twice for the next unhairing processes with or without depleted. When unhairing liquor is used twice, water consumption decreases in 32%, sodium sulfur 5% and lime 56,1%, with a cost bene-fit ratio upper one. In another study carried out by Gomez bustamante & echeverry Giral-do (2010) the characteristics of the liquor at the laboratory level are stabilized after ten or more reuses of unhairing wastewater. materials and methodsmaterialstests were conducted using salted cattle hides sampled randomly from a local tannery. a mini drum (cylindrical rotating reactor, used for hide and leather processing) was used. two different unhairing agents were used; sulphur formula-tion (0,5% anti winkle, 6% cao, 2,2% na2s, 100% H2o and 0,15% naoH), and sulphur free formulation (0,25% Koramin eKo, 1,8% depila-min Gs, 3,8% cao and 100% H2o), both were recommended by chemical supplier house of Villapinzón (pRocuR s.a). all chemicals used for the proposed physicochemical treatment of wastewater were analytical grade. methodPreparation of the unhairing hide: For the scaling up, a hide was divided into four equal pieces as show in Fig. 1, to compa-re the effect of recirculated water in the un-hairing hide evaluated. piece 1-a was washed and soaked with raw water, the wastewater Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental 249DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197  |  Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)obtained was used to wash and soak piece 2-a, section 3-a was treated with water discharge from 2-a, and section 4-a was performed with water discharge from the 3-a process. this procedure was conducted with both chemical formulations. due to the water lost in each procedure, the volume required was fill up (ac-cording to the formulations) with raw water.fig 1. bovine hide splitting for scale up test.Unhairing testsalted hides were thoroughly washed to remo-ve salt, blood residues, debris, soil and manu-re. after that, hide went through a process of soaking that aims to restore the hides moistu-re loss by addition of chemicals such as sur-factants (andrioli, petry, & Guterres, 2015). at the end of this process, the hides were washed again and drip dried until they reached bet-ween 1.0 and 2.0 degrees baume (°be).Wastewater was collected at the end of each unhairing tests and evaluated by analyzing bio-logical oxygen demand (dbo), chemical oxygen demand (dQo), chlorides and total suspended solid (tss). characteristics of the unhairing hide (output of hide and finished product) were evaluated according to method based of secto-rial chamber of leather – andi (2010)Wastewater treatmentaccording to the recommendations of the chemical supplier house of Villapinzon, wa-ter discharge using sulphur free formulation does not require any additional treatment, just removal of the hair one hour prior to the end of dosing.However, a screening step was necessary for wastewater obtained from treated mixed formulation with sulphur (agudelo, 2007), followed by a sulfide oxidation and coagula-tion–sedimentation step, in order to remove contaminants present in water by the addition of chemical products, and removal of non-use-ful components from the hide, such as hair, fat and meat. the proposed treatment design was based on Romero (2010)Revista de investigación agraria y ambiental250Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)  |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197Results and discussionSulphur free formulation According with the flow balance shown in Fig. 2, salty hide requires 100% by weight water in the unhairing process, 43% of this is absorbed by the hide, 54% is left as industrial wastewa-ter or effluent, which needs treatment and can be recirculated, and the remaining 3% is water combined with hair.fig 2. Water flow balanceRegarding the unhairing process using sulfur free formulation, hide sections 2-a and 3-a presented similar hair removal from the un-hairing process without recirculation of water. However, hair from section 4-a remained in-tact, indicating that unhairing process did not work after three recirculation of water.Figure 3 presents four quality parameters measured to each water discharge, and its comparison with the standard required for tan-ning wastewater. the obtained results indicate that the recommendation by the home provi-der of chemical inputs respect the formulation without sulphur, only applies to one discharge of recirculated water, since the second recircu-lation is affected negatively by unhairing pro-cess, leaving hair on the hide.According to figure 3, physicochemical analy-sis presented an increment up to 64% from the first water discharge recirculation to the second one. fig 3. effect of four quality parameter in the wastewater recirculation of sulphur free formulation  Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental 251DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197  |  Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)Sulphur mixed formulationFigure 4 shows the flow balance of Sulphur mixed formulation. the water discharge is 56% of the inlet water, however, though the removing hair and sludge step, the water dis-charge is reduced to 43%, being the total wa-ter to recirculate.fig 4. Water flow balanceAccording to figure 5, this formulation showed low level in all physicochemical parameters measured regarding unhairing process sul-phur free formulation.additionally, unhairing process using mixed sulphur formulation had satisfactory results in hide aspect for the formulation with raw water and the first water recirculation. In both cases, hide was without hair or hide de-bris, with homogeneous color, good size and open lines.fig 5. effect of four quality parameter in the wastewater recirculation of sulphur free formulation of sulphur mixed formulation Revista de investigación agraria y ambiental252Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)  |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197using this formulation, it was observed that as the number of recirculation was increased, hairless skin was cleaned without traces of skin, which improved the quality of the appa-lled skin. The first recirculation showed a high quantity of hair removal, leaving a remanen-ce of 2%, while the second recirculation, 1% of the hair remained, and on the third water discharge recirculation, the hide was comple-tely free of hair.Figure 6 shows the effect of treatment (screening step, followed by a sulfide oxi-dation and coagulation–sedimentation step) on water discharge carried after the unhai-ring process.fig 6. effect of four quality parameter of the wastewater treated importantly, in the third recirculation, the propo-sed wastewater treatment was adversely affec-ted, which could be caused by the remnants of pollutants in the wastewater from previous re-circulation, which is due to the requiring of va-rious dosages of reagents for treating water.conclusionsthe recirculation of wastewater from the un-hairing process with a previous physicochemi-cal treatment is successful, considering that the unhairing process is performed by tanne-ries once a week on average. untreated water is not recommended to sto-re due to the high content of organic matter, which begins to decompose, generating pro-blems of odors and gases causing harmful to health and the environment. in addition, wa-ter decomposition precludes its reuse in the unhairing process because the nature of the contaminants is unknown and when the hide absorbs the amount required for hydration, will adversely affect the quality characteristics of the final leather.this study evaluated a maximum of three re-circulation using a mixed sulphur formula for the unhairing process. However, further expe-riments are recommended to determine the maximum quantity of recirculations that would not affect the final product. Moreover, to identify Revista de Investigación Agraria y Ambiental 253DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197  |  Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)when the water will be saturated, and the physi-co-chemical treatment will not be effective.the wastewater recirculation from unhairing process does not increase costs to the ope-ration process, instead, it represents savings and reduces the negative environmental im-pact generated by each discharge of wastewa-ter in the bogota River. moreover, water reuse promises the reduction in the use of clean wa-ter by approximately 50%.acknowledgementsthe authors acknowledge to institute for Wa-ter education unesco-iHe from Holland, for the financial support to develop this research. this research is part of the project: managing Water for the city of the Future: sWitcH.Referencesalibardi, l., & cossu, R. (2016). pre-treatment of tannery sludge for sustainable landfilling. Waste Management, 52:202-211.andrioli, e., petry, l., & Guterres, m. (2015). envi-ronmentally friendly hide unhairing: enzymatic-oxidative unhairing as an alternative to use of lime and sodium sulfide. Process safety and en-vironmental protection, 93:9-17.agudelo s., (2007). saving water and raw materials in the processes of hide and leather tanning by precipitation and water recirculation. thesis. na-tional university of colombia.carrillo neira, s. a., & muñoz labrador, c. F. (2014). Reutilización del agua residual de la operación de pelambre en el proceso productivo del cuero. bogotá, colombia: universidad santo tomas.dettmer, a., cavalli, e., ayub, m., & Gutterres, m. (2013). environmentally friendly hide unhairing: enzymatic hide processing for the replacement of sodium sulfide and deliming. Journal of clea-ner production, 47:11-18.Fuquene, d. (2011). optimización del uso del agua en la etapa de pelambre en un proceso que pe-mrita la mejor calidad del cuero final y el menos impacto ambiental. Trabajo de investigación para optar al título de Magister en Ingeniería Ambien-tal. colombia: disponible en: http://www.bdigi-tal.unal.edu.co/4007/1/292536.2011.pdf.Gomez Bustamante, J. J., & Echeverry Giraldo, A. F. (2010). análisis técnico y económico en la re-circulación de aguas residuales de pelambre y curtido en una curtiembre. pereira, colombia: universidad tecnologica de pereira.Martínez, S., & Romero, J. (2018). Revisión del es-tado actual de la industria de las curtiembres en sus procesos y productos: un análisis de su com-petitividad. rev.fac.cienc.econ, 113-124.numpaque , R., & Viteri, s. (2016). biotransforma-ción del pelo residual de curtiembres. Revista de ciencias agrícolas, 33(2):95-105.Regional autonomous corporation of cundinamar-ca – caR. (2004). 2004. 08 agreement which standard dumping of leather tanning industry is defined, and adopting other regulations.Romero J. A. (2010). Wastewater Treatment, Theory and design principles. bogota. colombian school of engineering.sectorial chamber of leather - andi. (2010). ma-nual of Good practice for the production and pro-curement of the skin of cattle. bogota. andi.sivagami, K., sakthivel, K., & nambi, i. (2017). ad-vanced oxidation processed for the treatment of tannery wastewater. Journal of environ-mental chemical engineering, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2017.06.004.Conflicto de Intereseslos autores declaran no tener ningún conflicto de interesesRevista de investigación agraria y ambiental254Vol. 9, Núm. 2 (2018)  |  DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.2197

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Reducing the environmental impact of unhairing process in colombia tanneries

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