Carbon and energy footprint analysis of tannery wastewater treatment: A Global overview

In this study the carbon footprint and power demand of tannery wastewater treatment processes for the largest bovine leather producing regions were quantified and analysed. Moreover, we present a case where we benchmarked the carbon footprint and energy demand analysis of tannery wastewater treatment to municipal wastewater treatment. The bovine tannery industry requires approximately 7.3 107 m3 of water globally, most of it centred in PR China, India, Italy, Brazil, and the Russian Federation. We quantified the greenhouse gas direct and indirect emissions from tannery wastewater treatment facilities. Our results shows that the total CO2-equivalent emission for tannery wastewater treatment is 1.49 103 tCO2,eqd-1. Moreover, the energy intensity of tannery wastewater treatment processes is evaluated at 3.9 kWh kg-1bCOD,removed, compared to 1.4 kWh kg-1bCOD,removed of municipal wastewater treatment processes. Based on this work, in the field of tannery wastewater treatment an effort to innovate suitable treatment trains and technologies has a strong potential for reduce carbon footprint.