Leather production yields significant quantities of organic waste, a significant portion which originate from keratin (Chatturi et al., 2015). Keratinases lacking collagenolytic activity and having mild elastolytic activity are increasingly being explored for the dehairing process as they help in selective breakdown of tissue in the follicle, pulling out intact hairs without affecting the tensile strength of leather (Gupta and Ramnani, 2006; Sahni et al., 2015). Thanikaivelan et al.
(2004) reported that 0.5% sodium sulfide and 1% enzyme concentration result in complete hair removal from cow skin. Enzyme assisted de-hairing reduces sulfide concentration to 85%.
Ismail et al. (2012) reported that keratinases from Trichoderma harzianum could be applied in the absence of sodium sulfide and reduce the impact of dehairing waste in the environment. Keratinases from Caldicoprobacter algerienses has been reported to exhibit promising and eco-friendly alternative to the conventional chemicals used for dehairing in leather processing industry (Bouacem et al., 2016).