Quazi Farjana Lamia

Lecturer
Leather Engineering Department,KUET
Importance Why is oxygen in water important?

Dissolved oxygen (DO) analysis measures the amount of

gaseous oxygen (O2) dissolved in an aqueous solution.
Oxygen gets into water by diffusion from the surrounding
air, by aeration (rapid movement), and as a product of
photosynthesis.

DO is measured in standard solution units such

as milligrams O2 per liter (mg/L), millilitres O2
per liter (ml/L) etc.
DO is measured by way of its oxidation
potential with a probe that allows diffusion of
oxygen into it.
 Biochemical Oxygen Demand

• BOD is defined as the amount of oxygen required by bacteria

while stabilizing decomposable organic matter under aerobic
conditions at 20o C. BOD is expressed in two ways- BOD5 & BODL

• BOD test is used to determine the pollutional strength of

domestic, and industrial wastes in terms of oxygen that
they will require if discharged into natural watercourses in
which aerobic conditions exist.

•Approximate ratio:
BOD5 / BODL = 1.5
BOD5 / COD = 0.5
 Why 5 Day BOD?

* The BOD is considered complete after 20 days

* 20 Days is too long to wait.

* 5 days is a reasonable period for most of the BOD to be exerted.

* 5 Day BOD of Domestic and many industrial wastes is about

70 to 80 % of total BOD.

Md. Ariful Islam Juel

 Nature of BOD Reaction

•First Order Reaction: Rate is proportional to the amount of

oxidizable organic matter remaining at any time
•-dC/dt = kC, where C = concentration of oxidizable organic
matter at start of the time interval t, and k is the rate
constant for the reaction
•In BOD, it is customary to use L in place of C, where L represents
the ultimate demand
• -dL/dt = kL by integration the expression is: Lt /L = e-kt = 10-kt
•In translating 5 day BOD to total/ultimate BOD, the
following modification is done: y = L(1 – 10-kt)
COD: The amount of oxygen required to oxidize
the waste by strong oxidizing agent like
K2Cr2O7expressed in mg/l is called COD.
In COD almost all organic matters (biodegradable
or non biodegradable) are oxidized.
In BOD only biodegradable organic matters are
oxidized by bacteria.
For this, COD > BOD.
Total solids are the term applied to the material
residue left in the container after evaporation of
the sample and its subsequent drying in an oven at
a defined temperature.
Total solids include total suspended solids - the
portion of total solids retained by a filter,
and total dissolved solids - the portion that passes
through the filter. Solids are incorporated in water
from its source
 Solids originate from all stages of leather making; they comprise
fine leather particles, residues from various chemical discharges
and reagents from different waste liquors. These comprise of
large pieces of leather cuttings, trimmings and gross shavings,
fleshing residues, solid hair debris.
 Out of 1000 kg of raw hide, nearly 850 kg is generated as solid
wastes in leather processing. Only 150 Kg of the raw material is
converted in to leather. Tannery generated huge amount of
waste as follows:
 Fleshing: 56-60%
 Chrome shaving, chrome splits and buffing dust: 35-40%
 Skin trimming: 5-7%
 Hair: 2-5%
 Over 80 per cent of the organic pollution load in BOD
terms emanates from the beamhouse (pre-tanning); much
of this comes from degraded hide/skin and hair matter.
 During the tanning process at least 300 kg of chemicals
(lime, salt etc.) are added per ton of hides. Excess of non-
used salts will appear in the wastewater. Because of the
changing pH, these compounds can precipitate and
contribute to the amount of solid waste or suspended
solids. Every tanning process step, with the exception of
finishing operations, produces wastewater.
 An average of 35 m3 wastewater is produced per ton of raw
hides. The wastewater is made up of high concentration of
salts, chromium, ammonia, dye and solvent chemicals etc.
Md. Ariful Islam Juel
Md. Ariful Islam Juel
Md. Ariful Islam Juel
Soaking:

Wastewater discharged from soaking operation is characterized with

high BOD, COD, SS, DS value. The most important pollutants in
soaking effluents are: salt, hide surface impurities, dirt and globular
protein substances dissolved in water and salt solution.

In conventional processing salt-preserved hides are commonly used.

Calculated on the basis of wet salted weight, the amount of soaking
effluent discharged varies from 7 m3/t up to 9 m3/t raw hide. When
soaking dry hides, up to 20 m3 water/t dried hide is required
Unhairing / Liming:
• In this operation wastewater is characterized with high
pH, COD, BOD, SS, DS, lime value.
• About 75 % of the BOD and COD load is produced in the
beamhouse, with the main load coming from unhairing
without hair saving [10, Rydin and Frendrup 1993]
• A significant proportion of the COD (about 45 %) and
BOD (about 50 %) load stems from liming/unhairing [17,
UNEP 1991]. Liming /unhairing is also the main generator
of SS (about 60 %).
 Sulphides, lime, decomposed hair keratin, globular protein
and other non-collagen protein, as well as saponified
fractions of native fat constitute the load of liming
effluents making them the most polluted wastewater
streams.

 The amount of liming effluents, including washing,

fluctuates between 9 and 15 m3/t raw hide.
 A typical pollution load in liming effluents is presented
bellow:
 Conventional deliming and bating methods are based on
processing pelts in a bath containing salts derived from a
strong acid and a weak alkali (mainly ammonium salts)
together with proteolytic enzymes.
 The amount of deliming and bating effluents, including
washing waters, fluctuates between 7 and 11 m3/t raw hide.
 Calcium salts (mainly sulphates), sulphide residues,
degraded proteins (collagen and hair) and residual
proteolytic enzymatic agents and the like constitute the
main pollution load of deliming and bating effluents
The basic scheme of conventional chrome
tanning process involves pickling, tanning and
basifying.
The amount of chrome tanning effluents,
including washing waters and sammying water,
fluctuates in the range of 3 - 5 m3/t raw hide.
Chrome, chlorides and sulphates are the main
pollutants.
Md. Ariful Islam Juel
The output to the water medium from post-tanning
operations arises principally from the retanning,
dyeing and fatliquoring processes.
Dyes, ammonia, fat, fillers, Cr(III)-, Zr- and Al-salts,
vegetable and synthetic tanning agents are used in
these operation.
In milling, the leather is treated mechanically in
drums to soften the product; in buffing, the surface is
abraded. This treatment produces wet or dry leather
particles as residues with a high organic content and,
if the leather is chrome tanned, a high chromium
content. The dust from milling and buffing is
exhausted from the workplace.
Buffing dust concentrations vary from 0.1 to 30 mg/m³
depending on the equipment in place
The main problem with solvent-based coating agents
is the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
released during and after the coating process.