Non-aqueous green solvents improve alpha-amylase induced fiber opening in leather processing.

Severe water deficit and highly polluting effluent generation from leather industries have constantly been pressurizing the tanners to adopt cleaner leather processing systems. The present study aims to minimize the use of water by substituting it with non-aqueous green solvents and also to enhance the enzyme action in alpha-amylase based fiber opening process. The activity of alpha-amylase in select non-aqueous green solvents namely, heptane, polyethylene glycol 200 and propylene glycol is considerably higher by 62, 38 and 31% than in water, respectively.