Flow Properties o f Tannery Waste Liquor

Objective: A water treatment facility is to be erected nearby the industrial tanning complex, recently established East of Cairo, Egypt. This paper represents a contribution to studying the flow characteristics of the produced tannery waste effluents. A dried sample of tannery waste was chemically analyzed by X-ray fluorescence and its particle size distribution was determined. Next, rheological measurements were carried out on the waste slurry produced at temperatures ranging from 10°C to 40°C and three different solid concentrations, by weight: 20%, 25%, and 30%. The results showed that all waste suspensions under all conditions of solid content and temperature behaved as shear-thinning liquids. Flow indices of all suspensions generally tended to increase with temperature and solid concentration. Activation energies for viscosity were correlated to an increase in solid concentration and showed a decreasing pattern. All samples exhibited a thixotropic character that decreased with increased temperature and dilution of the suspension. The maximum pressure drops per unit length of a pipeline used to transport the waste suspension to the treatment unit was evaluated and found to increase with solid concentration and decrease with increasing temperature. Keywords: Rheology, Tannery waste slurry, Solid content, Temperature