Influence of the concentration of sodium hydroxide and temperature in the extraction of keratin from hair Residue at Harod Inversiones S.A.C.

Abstract

Hair is one of the residues generated in tanneries specifically in the liming process or liming operation that, most of the time, has an inadequate handling generating serious problems of contamination to the environment. For this reason, the main goal of this investigation was to determine whether the concentration of sodium hydroxide and temperature influenced the extraction of keratin from the hair residue at INVERSIONES HAROD S.A.C which, currently, discards 600 Kg of hair daily. Four concentrations of sodium hydroxide, which were between 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 N, were handled, and four temperatures, whose ranges varied between 60°,70°, 80° and 90° C, were worked. The time was kept fixed. It was three and a half hours, and 5g of hair residue was taken as a sample. As a result of this research, at 0.1 N of sodium hydroxide and at a temperature of 70° C, a greater extraction of keratin was obtained, which approximately was 54,33%.