Possible use of corn starch as tanning agent in leather industry: Controlled (gradual) degradation by HO.

High molecular weight/size and poor solubility of native starch seems to be preliminary drawbacks in its possible use in leather processing as a tanning/retanning agent. For this purpose, firstly the native starch which has too large molecular size to penetrate between skin fiber matrix was oxidized with HO in different molar ratios for disintegrating into appropriate molecular size that can be used in tanning process. Then, the product yields, water solubilities and degree of substitutions of oxidized starches were determined.

Performance and emission study of biodiesel from leather industry pre-fleshings.

The possible use of pre-fleshing wastes from tanneries in the production of biodiesel fuel was examimed in our previous study in 2005. In this study, engine performance and emission values of biodiesel obtained from these wastes have been investigated and compared to petrodiesel fuel. The test results demonstrated that although the wheel force and power of biodiesel fuel is slightly lower than petrodiesel and the acceleration periods are accordingly longer, the emission values of hydrocarbons and particulate matter were found to be considerably lower with biodiesel.