Microbial Transglutaminases as Pre-tanning Agents in the Leather Industry

Abstract

Microbial transglutaminases(MTG) was used to pre-tan hide to investigate its effect on the hydrothermal stability of hideand the improvement for exhaustion of chrome tanning agent. This study tested the shrinkage temperatures of samplestreated with MTG only and tanned MTG followed by the chrome tanning agent separately. The Cr2O3 content in effluents was surveyed after chrome tanning. It was shown that the shrinkage temperature of hide sample treated with0.6% MTG at pH 6.0 for 2h was above 80oC, much higher than 54.8oC, which is the Ts of control. While the Ts of leather sample, which was pre-treated with 0.6% of MTG first, tanned with only 4% chrome tanning agent were higher than 100oC,but initial pH is 2.0. Moreover, the exhaustion of chrome tanning agent in leather was improved significantly when the dosage of chrome salt was less than 4%.