Search

The control of pH of a process plays an important role in many chemical or biological reactions. The monitoring and control of pH of processes like wastewater treatment, manufacturing food and leather making facilitate to reduce pollution and improve the quality of the final product. The focus of this study is to optimize the usage of lime and recycling of spent liquor through continuous monitoring system of pH to achieve near zero residue from liming operation. But the challenges are nonlinear behaviour of the system and frequent fouling of pH sensors. The system developed monitors the pH values and controls the cycling time and the addition of lime as per the user set profile. The real time data of pH values in the process is logged on to the PC for further analysis. The efficacy of the system developed was validated at lab level and can be easily scaled up for implementation in industries. The results showed that the effluent from leather making can be minimized by adopting automated pH monitoring and control systems.

The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of developing fatliquor with antifungal property from Citrullus colocynthis oil. Fatliquor, which is used in leather industry for lubrication of leather is prepared by sulphation of Citrullus colocynthis oil with sulphuric acid at a particular temperature. The particle size of fatliquor has been determined by zeta potential analyzer. Gas chromatograph with a mass detector (GCMS) analysis of Citrullus colocynthis oil confirmed the presence of different percentage of oleic, linoleic, stearic and palmitic acids. Citrullus colocynthis oil has been identified for use as fatliquor based on certain antimicrobial and antibiotic properties. The presence of high percentage of unsaturation and also antifungal property leads to the development of a novel fatliquor for leather application having antifungal activity. Fresh mature cultures of fungal species, Aspergillus Niger, Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus flavus and Paecilomyces variotii have been used as sources of inoculum for ascertaining the antifungal activity of this novel fatliquor.

Calophyllum inophyllum oil which contains mixed oleic, linoleic acid, stearic acid and palmitic acid is well known for its antimicrobial properties. Presence of unsaturation leads to provide better opportunity for its modification for fat liquoring. Trans esterified emulsion of Calophyllum inophyllum oil shows good antifungal property. To enhance its antifungal activity against more fungal species the blending of trans esterified emulsion with water extract of Bishop’s weed leads to the formation of an antifungal fat liquor. This blended product mitigates most of the disadvantages associated with conventional tanning. Fresh mature cultures of fungal species such as, Aspergillus Niger, Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus flavus and Paecilomyces variotii have been collected and used as sources of inoculum for antifungal activity of the fat liquor. Gas chromatograph with a mass detector (GC/MS) analysis of both Calophyllum inophyllum oil and Bishop’s weed were carried out separately. The presence of unsaturated acids like oleic acid and linoleic acid provide the platform for its modification by transesterification process and the presence of two compounds namely thymol and carvacrol in the Bishop’s weed enhances the antifungal activity of fat liquor. The antifungal activity of fat liquor is confirmed by Agar well diffusion method. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of using Calophyllum inophyllum oil as antifungal fat liquor for leather industry.

Synthetic dyes are commonly used for dyeing and printing in paper, textile and leather industries. However, some of these dyes cause health hazards and environmental constraints. Currently, development of efficient and inexpensive eco-friendly dyes is of vital importance for dyeing industries, motivating researchers to focus on less toxic and biodegradable dyes from natural sources. The objective of this work is to develop a novel cleaner dye for leather using a green fluorescent protein (GFP) by genetic engineering approach. Specifically, two different charged variants GFP and surface modified GFP (GFPR) were evaluated for the leather dyeing process. These GFP variants were cloned using gene specific primers with restriction enzymes, successfully over expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. Dyeing conditions such as concentration of protein and duration of dyeing were optimized as 5 μM and 4 h respectively. The efficiency of protein binding was estimated through spectroscopic analysis and was around 85 and 96% for GFP and GFPR respectively. The intensity of dyeing and total color difference (ΔE) values from color measurement also indicated that GFP variants can be used as a dye for leather. Further, the characteristics of leather coated with GFP variants was studied using scanning electron microscope, thermal and UV image analysis. From the results obtained, it is suggested that GFP could serve as an environment friendly dye for leather that might reduce pollution load generated by the leather industry.