Research

Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences

Title :

Lab Scale demonstration of integrated electro-Chemical technology for achieving near-zero liquid discharge for tanneries

Area of Research :

Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences

Focus Area :

Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Saravanan Palanivel, CSIR- Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai, Tamil Nadu (600020)

Co-PI:

Dr. Sundarapandiyan Sundaramoorthy, CSIR- Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai, Tamil Nadu (382445)

Contact info :

Total Budget (INR):

54,05,039

Details

Executive Summary :

The Indian leather and leather product sector is a significant industry, contributing to export earnings and employment. In 2017, the industry processed 700,000 tons of rawhides and skins from around 2300 units, resulting in the production of about 3 billion sq. ft of leather. The export of leather and leather products from India was about US 5.74 billion in 2017-18. Kanpur, one of the major leather clusters in India, produces about 29 of the country's leather production, generating about 30 million litres of wastewater per day or 8.6 billion litres per annum. However, the tannery units in Kanpur struggle to conform to discharge requirements as stipulated by the Governments. To address these concerns, a strategic approach could be to minimize the use of water and limit the discharge of wastewater to near-zero levels. Electro-chemical treatment systems, which involve segregating waste streams and following electro-chemical treatments, have shown promise in achieving zero wastewater discharge without resorting to Reverse Osmosis or segregation of waste streams. The project aims to standardize near-zero wastewater discharge technology for various tannery process schemes and demonstrate it in four tanneries in the Kanpur leather cluster.

Equipments :

Organizations involved