STUDIES FOR DEVELOPING AN AUTOMATION SYSTEM FOR RECYCLING THE FLOAT RESULTED FROM THE PICKLING PROCESS OF BOVINE HIDES

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-08-9 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 51, 907-912 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/51/S20.118

ABSTRACT

Water serves as a medium for fundamental process phases (e.g. tanning and dyeing) in leather production. The reduction of water consumption per product unit has been an environmental priority for European tanners over the years. This is possible mainly through the setting of continuous improvement objectives aiming at developing water efficient processes and water recycling technologies. The paper analyses the pickling operation, for bovine hides processing. The aim is to develop an automation system which will reduce the water, salts and hazardous chemicals consumption per product unit. In previous work an automation system was proposed aiming to recycle the pickling float. The system consists of agents with specific roles. Also, a comparative analytical study has been presented between the classic pickling process and the one proposed with recovery of float. The obtained results were positive and the work that followed was focused on development and deployment of the system in a real industrial environment. This paper also presents a comparative study between the classic pickling process and the one proposed with recovery of float. The novelty consists in the fact that the study is not analytical, but conducted in a real tannery, on a real process. The results were again positive. The water, salts and hazardous chemicals consumption per product unit was reduced, and thus, environmental and economic benefits were acquired.

Keywords: recycling technology, automation system, wastewater reuse