Comparative study of environmental impact of three-leather process production by life cycle analysis

Abstract

The present work aims to study the substitution of chromium in a very polluting tanning process using an alternative tanning process. For this, three scenarios (S) have been adopted; S1: Vegetal/aluminum combination, S2: vegetable alone and S3: aluminum only. The environmental impact of the three systems has been carried by Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) using the LCA Simapro 8 tool software. The chemical reagents, water process and electricity consumption of the wastewater are responsible for all generated impacts by these scenarios. The results obtained show that the ratio of process water (water / leather) is 2 L / m2 for S1 and 2.7 L / m2, 1.56 L / m2 respectively for S2 and S3. Also, it should be noted that the chemical quantities used for 1 m2 of leather for S1, S2 and S3 are respectively 1.446, 0.099 and 1.44 kg. The LCA assessment shows that S2 has the least environmental impact than S1 and S3. The weighted results (single score) that S2-senario presents advantages such as land use and organic respiration, given that vegetal tannin is biodegradable; because it is mainly exploitation of tannins coming from the forests, necessary for the preservation of flora and fauna.