Development and Application of Cleaner Production in Rural Tanneries

Abstract

Sudanese rural tanning is an inherited craft. The methods and the indigenous materials employed by the rural tanners have remained unchanged for a long time. This is due to poverty, illiteracy, poor communications and lack of access to modern scientific technologies of leather production. As a result, the leathers produced by rural tanners are hard, crusty, liable to crack, tear. Moreover, the process period is long. The objective of the study is to investigate the possibilities of adoption of modern tanning methods to rural tanning with appropriate modifications (1) to speed up the process, (2) take out some of the hard manual work, (3) improve the quality of the produced leathers, (4) increase the production of the rural tanneries and (5) direct rural tanners toward cleaner production. For this purpose, a hand-operated drum was designed to carry out all wet processes through soaking to retanning. Modern tanning materials were introduced in all processes. Little amounts of chromium were used as a pre-tanning agent. The optimum amount of chromium was found to be 3% (based on the fleshed weight) which gave acceptable shrinkage temperature and good physical properties. After developing the tanning recipe and selecting the optimum chrome powder to be applied by rural tanneries, recycling of spent liquors was carried out to (1) minimize the environmental impact and to (2) reduce the production cost. Considerable savings on chemicals and water were obtained. Rural tanneries play a vital role in national economy and they have to be improved. Rural tanneries can create employment opportunities for a large number of people if attention has been paid for revamp and modification.