Pollution abatement of tannery workshop effluents

The treatment of industrial waste waters in many developing countries is very limited or even ignored although noticeable efforts of the authorities. The governments look for new efficient and cheap cleaning technologies and the electric techniques are quite able to fulfil the requirements. A good example is provided by a North-Cameroonian tannery factory. In an exploratory set of experiments, the aqueous effluents are exposed to a gliding arc discharge burning in humid air which favors the formation of Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species (RONS), such as °OH and °NO whose derivatives present strong oxidizing character. The batch treatment of the effluents for 10 min induce abatements of Total Organic Carbon, Biological Oxygen Demand and Bacterial population by 30%, 20% and 3 and 4 logarithm units of Colony Forming Units respectively.