PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF FULL-SCALE WASTE-WATER TREATMENT FACILITY FOR FINISHED LEATHER INDUSTRY

Medium strength finished leather wastewater has been successfully treated using anaerobic and aerobic systems in laboratory scale. Encouraged with the results, a full scale wastewater treatment facility was commissioned in one of the modern leather finishing industry in india. It has been possible to achieve an effluent BOD level of about 135 mg/L with an influent BOD of about 1260 mg/L. It is worthwhile to mention that wastewater contains some toxic materials which are very difficult to degrade. However, other parameters like phenol related compounds have been reduced to 0.3 mg/L in the effluent. Total dissolved solids could not be contained by biological methods. In addition a tannery equation has also been developed from an extensive survey carried out in India.