Environmental Assessment of Dehydration Processes for Bovine Hides

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to compare the environmentalimpact of two systems for processing bovine leather: (i) a newcontinuous system that consists in dehydration and tanning andpost-tanning by immersion versus (ii) the traditional systemusing drums.In order to better assess the environmental impact of this newtanning system, the life cycle assessment methodology has beenchosen to perform calculations on various impact categories,including the global warming potential (CO2 equivalentemissions), and the energy consumption for both the traditionaland the new tanning processes.When assessing the environmental impact of the new system, itis clear that a reduction in the use of acetone during the processwill positively affect the environmental outcomes. In this regard,results show reductions on the impacts in eight out of the elevenimpact categories analyzed as well as reductions on energyconsumption. However, the acetone loss considered (5%) led tohigher impacts compared to the traditional system in threespecific impact categories, which can be improved by reducingthe acetone emission to 2.5%.