Abstract:
Leather making is a very long process and consists of many different chemical
and mechanical processes. The common raw materials of leather industries are
skins or hides, chemicals and water. Fleshing is one of the processes in leather
tanning which aims to remove the remaining meat and fat that is still attached to the
skin or hide.
The treatment of fleshing waste results 13.733, 8.073 and 8.5 for moisture content,
ash content and pH respectively. These properties indicated that the high amount of
water removed by drying and the removal of different salts and basic chemicals. The
different yield of fat with minimum 6.46 and maximum value of 14.867 by different
solvents indicate the requirement of optimization of process for fat extraction.
Chemical property values 10.262, 165.527 and 249.33 respectively for acid value,
iodine value and saponification value of fat compared to other sources (fish oil) shows
that fleshing waste can be a source of leather fatliquor. In fatliquor characterization a
high iodine number shows that the product is dry oil, has high penetration power.
Similarly saponification value is also indicating high probability to be a source of
fatliquor. Properties of sulfated fatliquor were characterized to compare with
commercial fatliquor. The product was used in leather processing in post tanning
process.
Organoleptic properties done by visual examination of experienced chemists was
similar in between experimental and control leather garments, this properties indicate
the probability of producing fatliquor from lime fleshing waste.
Collectively the results of the current study pointed out the efficiency of extracting fat
from fleshing waste and converting it into fatliquor in achieving distinctive
environmental and economic benefits. It is recommended that further optimization of
the extraction process depending on the factors (temperature, solvent type and time)
increase the quality of sulfated product.
Key words: Tannery, Tanning; Chiller, Fatliquor, Fleshing, Pelt, Liming, Beam
house Organoleptic, wetblue, tanyard and unhairing.