Replacement of lime with carbohydrases – a successful cleaner process for leather making

Abstract

Leather processing involves many sequential steps from raw hide to the finished leather. All these steps have definite role on the quality of leather in order to produce a superior end product with affable properties. Several chemicals are being employed in these process steps. Many of these have been identified now as hazardous, harmful or atleast pose difficulties in treatment. Enzymes are being extensively used in many of these process steps as eco benign alternatives either replacing the chemicals completely or at least partly substituting them. In this study, an attempt has been made to achieve fibre opening using galactosidases from Aspergillus terreus replacing conventional lime. The standardized experiment showed that the leather obtained comparable to the traditionally produced leathers in terms of physical, bulk and functional properties. The developed enzymatic process of fibre opening showed remarkable reduction of effluent load such as Chemical Oxygen Demand and Total Dissolved Solids. The new method also entails substantial saving in process duration. Analysis of extent of interfibrillary material removal, scanning electron microscopy and histology studies corroborated visual observations of fibre opening. This process can be adopted in leather industry for greener and benign mode of application with environmental excellence.