Conversion of Hazardous leather solid waste into fuels and products

The main objective of the present investigation was to recover fuels and value added byproducts from hazardous chrome tanned leather solid waste (HCTLSW) generated from the leather industry under pyrolysis gasification process and controlled oxygen supply gasification process without converting trivalent chromium (Cr
³⁺
) into carcinogenic hexavalent chromium (Cr
⁶⁺
) towards achieving near absolute conversion of the waste. The variable conditions selected were mass of HCTLSW (0.5 kg to 2.0 kg) and temperature (400°C to 800°C). The yields were characterized using TGA, SEM/EDX, High Temperature Simulated Distillation (HTSD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The composition of the yield obtained was gaseous components, liquid fraction and carbon residual ash. The liquid fraction on distillation produces fuel oil, nitrogen enriched liquid and ammonium carbonate. The HTSD data on fuel oil suggests that the derived fuel oil could be blended with gasoline, kerosene, diesel and vacuum gas oil.