Tanwater was a special

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the Water quality, quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking water, drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recrea ...

project initiated by Elmo tannery in Sweden in 1992. The aim was to reduce

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

effluent from the water treatment systems during the tanning of

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

. Previously

tanneries Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

in Europe had only been able to reduce nitrogen in the water by up to a maximum of 30%. The "Tanwater" project aimed at reducing nitrogen waste by up to 80% and finally was able to achieve 89% nitrogen-waste reduction in the water. This was a major breakthrough for the tanning industry because nitrogen is a pollutant of ground water. Elmo tannery received a grant for the project from

LIFE Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

(The Financial Instrument for the Environment). LIFE finances environmental projects in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Elmo tannery, although producing leather predominantly for the car industry (upholstery leather), also produces leather for handbags and footwear. Since Elmo started this project there have been a number of tanneries that have followed in its steps of improving their water treatment systems in Sweden and Norway.

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20090115001900/http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/themes/water/best.htm *http://www.tanwater.net/ *http://www.tanwater.net/file/Layman-uk.pdf *https://web.archive.org/web/20061110041537/http://www.euroleather.com/doc/frendruptan.doc Waste treatment technology {{environment-stub