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Remediation of Soils Contaminated with Chromium Due to Tannery Wastes Disposal
Published in Donald L. Wise, Debra J. Trantolo, Edward J. Cichon, Hilary I. Inyang, Ulrich Stottmeister, Remediation Engineering of Contaminated Soils, 2000
K. Ramasamy, S. Mahimairaja, R. Naidu
Tanning is the process through which animal skins and hides are converted into the nonbiodegradable and tough material known as leather. The tannery industry is one of the major export industries in India, and the export income from leather products is approximately 7000 crore rupees. At present in Tamilnadu alone more than 1008 small-scale tanneries are functioning, with an employment potential of about 1 million and accounting for 6% of world leather production (1).
Household crafts, health and well-being, and workshop production
Published in Andrew N. Sherwood, Milorad Nikolic, John W. Humphrey, John P. Oleson, Greek and Roman Technology, 2019
Andrew N. Sherwood, Milorad Nikolic, John W. Humphrey, John P. Oleson
Protecting the body from the elements with coverings was one of the earliest human needs that required technological innovation. In the Greek and Roman periods, textiles and leathers were by far the most common. The most important textiles were produced from two animal fibres (wool and silk) and two plant fibres (cotton and linen); other sources played minor roles (hemp, asbestos, reed, hair from various animals). Similarly, the majority of leather was supplied by cattle, sheep, and pigs, although hides from other animals continued to be used.
Leather and Synthetic Leather: A Mechanical Viewpoint for Sustainability
Published in Dzaraini Kamarun, Ramlah Mohd. Tajuddin, Bulan Abdullah, Engineering and Technical Development for a Sustainable Environment, 2017
Jamaluddin Mahmud, Siti Hajar Mohd Yusop, Siti Noor Azizzati Mohd Noor
The ASTM D1517 states that skin is “the pelt of a small animal, such as calf, pig and sheep and also used interchangeably with hide.” ASTM D1517 defines hide as “the pelt of a large animal, such as cow and horse, used interchangeably with skin.” The standard also expressed leather as “a general term for hide or skin that still retains its original fibrous structure more or less intact, and that has been treated so as to be imputrescible even after treatment with water. The hair or wool may or may not have been removed. Certain skins, similarly treated or dressed, and without the hair removed, are termed “fur.” No product may be described as leather if its manufacture involves breaking down the original skin structure into fibers, powder or other fragments by chemical or mechanical methods, or both, and reconstituting these fragments into sheets or other forms” [1]. The development of human skin assists to correlate study in animal skin as a references or datum for research of ‘hide’ to be employed for human usage. History shows that before 3000 B.C., the Chinese people started to use leather for their clothing [2]. For example, they used animal skin for coats, aprons and shawls. Therefore, it is important to develop the knowledge on leather for human purposes such as in current functions and also for the future. Compared to human skin, leather differs in terms of the layers it has. Animal skin only has two layers composed of different structures [3]. Grain layer is the upper layer and corium is the second inner layer. The definition of grain layers and corium are the “entire length of hair follicles and comprises mostly thick bundles of collagen fibers”, respectively. In another perspective, leather is also defined as a collagen structure material. Recently, in manufacturing process, fat liquoring agents are usually used as additional material but this causes instability during heating session [4]. It should be avoided by improving the manufacturing process whilst maintaining leather quality. Natural leather has always been chosen to be made into leather goods products [5]. As evidence, it can be seen that there are numerous applications in downstream areas which apply leather as their intermediate industrial products. As mentioned before, India is one of the countries which exports leather in bulk quantity and this has already reached US$2 billion/year in the past decades [6].
Greener approach for goat skin tanning
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2022
Tolera Seda Badessa, Mihret Tekalign Hailemariam, Shegaw Mohammed Ahmed
Leather industry is the environmental concern of all over the world as it releases huge amounts of chemical effluents to the environment especially during tanning step of the process. In Ethiopia there are large number of leather industries which are commonly using chemicals for tanning process and release tremendous amounts of chemical pollutants to the environment. Tanning is a process in which the leather-making protein is completely stimulating against heat, enzymatic biodegradation, thermo-mechanical stress by converting the fibrous protein of raw hide or skin into stable material and making the leather suitable for a wide variety of end uses (Everton et al., 2020). In tanning processes tanning materials are able to crosslink with reactive site of fibrous protein, and it involves the conversion of putrefiable skin or hides to a non-putrefiable material (Alex & Arthur, 2016). Tanning is considered as one of the important steps that protect the leather against microbial degradation There are a wide variety of tanning agents that are available at the market today. Some of these include vegetable, alum, chrome, oil and aldehyde tanning agents. Among the tanning agents, chrome tanning is the dominant and widely used in the leather industries. Chrome tanned leather accounts for 90% of leathers in the world. Although chrome tanning has gained importance in leather manufacture, its advantage is over shadowed by its negative impact on the environment. It is a global environmental disaster and puts the health of millions of leather workers and ordinary citizens at risk (Abul et al., 2015).
Sustainable supply chain management in the leather industry: a systematic literature review
Published in International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications, 2022
Xiaowei Chen, Linqi Xu, Zhou Ren, Fu Jia, Yiqi Yu
Leather and derived products come from tanned animals’ (cattle, sheep, goat, etc.) skins and hides (COTANCE 2020). Leather is a by-product of slaughterhouses in the meat supply chain, an end product of tanneries, and raw material for leather product manufacturers (De Marchi and Di Maria 2019; Jaegler 2016). According to the European Union (EU) regulations (EC No 1069/2009 and EU No 142/2011), animal by-products are classified into three levels according to the public and animal health risk level and contamination; and leather belongs to Category 3 with a low level of risk (Amicarelli, Fiore, and Bux 2021; Ferronato et al. 2021). According to the Standard International Trade Classification proposed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Leather-related raw materials include hides, skins, and fur skins. Except for raw materials, leading leather products include footwear, accessories, and automotive upholstery (COTANCE 2020 ), such as seats, dashboards, and door trim pieces (Kim 2021). In addition to regular leather, there are also edible hides, such as ponmo, a cowhide that looks like beef after processing (Tijani and Ajayi 2016).
Leather-like materials by cellular agriculture
Published in Textile Progress, 2023
Dana Wilson, Olga Tsigkou, Lucy Bosworth, Celina Jones
Animal skin is defined by a multiple layer composition (Figure 3) (Sharphouse, 1995c). The epidermis is the outermost layer of skin, exposed to the surrounding environment. This layer contains protective, dead, keratinous cells that are removed during leather processing to attain a uniform surface (Covington, 2011b). Below the epidermis is the dermis. Only the dermal layers of skin are applicable to the final composition of leather. The upper grain layer has a dense network of fine collagen fibres with a high angle of weave relative to the skin surface. Whilst most of the skin is composed of Type I collagen, the grain layer also contains Type III (Covington, 2011c). Type III collagen fibres are finer and weaker, but provide flexibility, as well as the distinctive surface texture of leather. The most expensive, premium leathers are full-grain grade (Figure 3) (Dalgado, 2019). Only high-quality hides are used for full-grain leathers, as any imperfections on the outer surface (e.g. scarring, blemishing) remain visible (Walker, Webster, Bugby, & Alexander, 1990; Yeh & Perng, 2001). Generally, the highest quality part of a hide is the back, where less superficial damage is likely to occur when an animal is alive (Tucker, 2017). Surface area and thickness of sufficiently high-quality leather for commercial use is limited by animal skin size. Additionally, there is wide scope for variation in hide quality, due to factors such as climate, animal age and upbringing (Abebayehu & Kibrom, 2010; Hadley, Garnsworthy, Yanek, & Shelly, 2005). Full-grain leather is hence reserved for applications where thick leather with exceptional durability is vital, such as saddlebacks (Tucker, 2017). Top-grain leather has the hide’s outer surface removed, so imperfections are no longer visible in the final material. Top-grain leather is generally used for high-end fashion goods. Elastin fibres within the grain enable live skin to stretch. Top-grain leather has the hide’s outer surface removed, so imperfections are no longer visible in the final material (Covington, 2011b). The lower corium of the dermis comprises of less-densely woven, but thicker collagen fibres, with a smaller angle of weave (Haines & Barlow, 1975). As well as collagen, the overlapping region between the grain and corium in live skin contains hair follicles, blood vessels and sweat glands (Figure 3). A veiny surface texture is avoided in traditional leather manufacture by bleeding animals thoroughly after slaughter (Covington, 2011b). Native skin contains functioning cells (e.g. fibroblasts, endothelial) throughout the layers (Tancous, 1969). Beneath the dermis lies fatty flesh tissue that is, like the cellular components, removed before leather manufacture. Split leather is comprised of the loosely woven, internal corium layer of skin, so these leathers are cheaper and suppler (Figure 3). Suede is a form of split leather that is abraded on the corium flesh side to give a soft nap. Bonded leather is the lowest quality material, often used in cheap furniture, that is composed of hide offcuts bound with polyurethane (Tucker, 2017).