Pyrolysis characteristics and Cr speciation of chrome-tanned leather shavings: influence of pyrolysis temperature

Chrome-tanned leather shavings (CTLS) are a type of solid waste generated from the leather industry. In this study, the pyrolysis experiment of CTLS was conducted in a high-temperature tubular furnace reactor at different temperatures. The results showed that the pyrolysis temperature highly affected the product yields. The tar generated from the CTLS pyrolysis presented a wide distribution of pyrolytic compounds, and nitrogenated derivatives were the major group. The scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) investigation showed that a continuous structure of irregular but rather uniformly distributed interconnected pores of the chars. Cr was found to exist in the char as its reduced state (Cr3+). This study provided basic data for the determination of pyrolysis temperatures of CTLS targeting different products.