Pages 436–440
Abstract
Research summary supplied by the authors
Bioprocess technological interventions in leather manufacture by utilizing enzymes as a catalytic aid are emerging as a promising future technology for the sustainable leather industry. The application of enzymes at every stage of leather processing has been studied for cleaner leather processing. Enzymes are being employed during beamhouse operation to minimize the solid waste and effluent generation. Hydrolase enzymes such as protease, amylase and lipase are used in the pre-tanning process to hydrolyze protein, carbohydrate and fat in the skin matrix respectively. The enzyme combination system of beamhouse operation is a biomimicking solution from the human intestinal mechanism, where protease, amylase and lipase (PAL) enzymes are utilized together to perform unhairing, fiber opening and defleshing of leather manufacture respectively. This study explores the use of a multi-enzyme combination system to carry out beam house operations as an integrated step. Protease, amylase and lipase behaviours were determined in multi-enzyme system to understand how each enzyme behaves in the presence of the other enzyme. The results showed that protease had negligible activity on the counter enzymes amylase and lipase, while both protease and lipase activities were significantly enhanced in the PAL system. Goat skins treated with the PAL system exhibited complete unhairing and defleshing. This combination enzyme beamhouse operation represents a promising cleaner and more sustainable leather processing technology with reduced energy, time and effluent discharge.