LAHORE, April 29: Scientists at the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) claim they have developed an environment-friendly biotechnology for local leather and detergent industry.

“The industrial enzyme, protease, has been prepared at laboratory scale and work is on for its trial test,” project director Dr Shahjahan Baig told Dawn.

“When used in the tanning industry, it will reduce the damage caused to environment due to use of chemicals by 40 per cent, besides cutting energy consumption costs.”

The three-year project for developing protease had been assigned to the PCSIR by the ministry of science and technology.

First phase of the project has been completed in two years at a cost of Rs10 million. The second phase, trial test and fabrication of large reactors, will cost Rs25 million.

Cheap agriculture waste like stalk of rice, wheat and maize will be used as raw material for the growth of microbes in a reactor with controlled atmosphere and temperature to produce protease, Dr Baig says.

Seventy per cent of the machinery required for the processing is locally-made, and only 30 per cent of the equipment will have to be imported, he adds.

“The reactor, which if imported costs Rs20 million, will be fabricated indigenously at a cost of just Rs3 million.”

He says that the use of new biotechnology will make `Dehairing’, presently accounting for 70-80 per cent of the total COD effluent in leather-making processes, an environment-friendly operation, ridding it of the conventional mode involving use of chemicals.

The protease by-product may be used as fortified poultry feed to enhance metabolic process of proteins during digestion and absorption mechanism in the body of bird, research associate Muhammad Riaz says.

Data available with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry reveals that about 555,000 kilogram enzyme, at a rate of around Rs250 per kilogram, is being imported each year.

Its local manufacturing will mean reduced cost of production for leather industry, while the export of surplus protease can also help earn foreign exchange, Mr Riaz says.

According to Dr Baig, another benefit of the project will be production of skilled manpower. “University students are being trained in the manufacturing of industrial enzymes, guaranteeing a bright future both for them as well as the country.”

He says India has a centre of excellence for production of protease as companies there are producing a large chunk of industrial enzymes being used world over. Pakistan can also be among the beneficiaries by exporting protease if the government’s encourages the trade, he adds.

The PCSIR Laboratories held a two-day national seminar on bio-manufacture technology here on April 27 and 28. At least 50 representatives of the leather industry also attended the moot to have detailed information about the protease.