Guangdong, China-based Simona Tanning has been awarded gold status by the Leather Working Group (LWG).

Its new effluent treatment and water recycling plant, which has a 2,400m³ per day capacity, has been in operation since April. The plant is designed to reduce energy consumption and contains state-of-the-art primary equipment as well as anaerobic, facultative and aerobic Biological treatment. The aerobic biological system is operated as a membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment using submerged membranes. The MBR effluent is further treated with reverse osmosis technology, producing 1,600m³ per day of salt-free, high-quality water, which is used for leather processing. An advanced oxidation process is applied to treat the reverse osmosis concentrate.

W2O Environment, which provides environmental consulting, research and training for the leather industry, helped the Chinese tannery to implement the MBR and RO technology, in terms of engineering and selection of equipment.

Simon Tanning re-tans bovine leather primarily for use in shoe production.