Environmental Assessment of Tannery Wastes from Chittagong, Bangladesh
The present paper deals with the study of different physico-chemical parameters as well as metal concentration in the effluents discharged by a leather processing industry, Madina Tannery, Chittagong, Bangladesh.Industrial effluents were collected from every section of the leather-processing unit (viz., preliminary soaking,
soaking, dehairing, re-liming, bating, pickling, chrome tanning, neutralization, colouring and fat liquoring). The pH value and concentrations (mg.l-1) of TDS, TSS, Cl-
, BOD, COD and Cr were found in the range of 3.4-12.8, 570- 85,340- 68,2384,-69,23-125, 1148-8875, 2068-16,231 and 26-6853 respectively. Levels (mg.l-1) of BOD, COD,Chloride (Cl-), Electric Conductivity (EC), Total Alkalinity (TA), Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) and Total Suspended Solid (TSS) were found in the range of 4768-5798, 6636-7859, 1978-2215, 2900-5600, 745-1358, 7068-9068 and 1003-2307 respectively. Metal concentrations (mg.l-1) of Cr, Mn, Fe and Cd were found in the range of 69,74,0.07,0.09, 2.5412,2.8796 and 0.0257,0.0325 respectively. The study reveals that tannery effluents play a key rolein environmental contamination.
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