Ammonium salts load your effluent with nitrogen. DELIME-A and sulphamic acid offer a gentler, ammonia-free deliming route — here is how they work.
Deliming brings a limed pelt down from strongly alkaline to a pH where bating enzymes can work. The classic way to do it is with ammonium sulphate or ammonium chloride — effective, but they release ammonia into the float and load your effluent with nitrogen that then has to be treated.
A gentler chemistry
DELIME-A is an ammonium-salt-free buffering salt. It delimes gently and quickly without swelling the pelt, and its high complexing affinity for calcium and iron gives a strong lime-dissolving capacity — the route to extra-white pelts. Because it masks chromium salts, it also sets up a fine, close grain after chrome tanning.
Where sulphamic acid fits
For acidification and pickle work, sulphamic acid is a solid, ammonia-free acid that drops pH without the fume or swelling of strong mineral acids. It is stable and virtually non-hygroscopic when dry, so it is convenient to store and dose — and it doubles as a descaler for the drums and pipework the float runs through.
The effluent maths
- →Lower effluent nitrogen — no ammonium salts means less ammonia for your treatment plant to strip.
- →Rapid, even de-swelling — thorough deliming suited to heavy hides, with cleaner pelt surfaces.
- →Fine, close grain — chromium masking carries the benefit through to the tanned leather.
Ammonia-free is not a compromise here — it is a cleaner input that shows up as a cleaner output. If you are reviewing your beamhouse for effluent load, this is a straightforward place to start.