A review for tannery wastewater treatment: some thoughts under stricter discharge requirements

To meet the extremely strict requirements of tannery wastewater, scientists need to urgently devise novel methods for controlling the quality of tannery wastewater. With these methods, it would be easier to promote sustainable development in the tannery industry. In this article, we summarize the following aspects of tannery wastewater: (i) the sources and characteristics of tannery wastewater, (ii) the main treatment methods (primary, secondary, and tertiary treatments), and (iii) resource utilization status of wastewater. In a brief introduction, we describe how tannery wastewater is currently subjected to single-pollutant treatment methods that strive to remove various toxic chemicals, including total nitrogen, total phosphorus, chloride ion, chromic salts, sulfur-containing compounds, and dyes. The methods for treating tannery wastewater is proposed. We anticipate that by using a proposed combination treatment techniques, the effluents in tannery wastewater can eventually be controlled to satisfy the stricter standards of wastewater disposal. Moreover, we also focus our efforts on recycling wastewater.