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The tanning industry produces important quantities of solid waste, part of them are shavings and trimmings. The equivalent of approximately 10% of the weight of raw hides is removed as shavings and trimmings.
AIICA develops a technology for the valorisation of chrome tanned leather shavings and trimmings to obtain protein hydrolysates and chrome liquor by chemical hydrolysis. The hydrolysis system is designed to obtain a good separation between sludge and liquid.
A simple chemical digestion is used to hydrolyse chrome-tanned leather shavings and trimmings, allowing the separation of chrome as tanning liquor able to be re-used in leather tanning and a protein hydrolysate that can find application in agriculture as leaf fertilizers.
A critical size of material availability is required to make the process economically viable, which is estimated in 10 to 20 metric tones per day at 50% humidity.
The main innovations that this technology presents are:
The advantages of the technology with regard to the existing systems on the market are:
The process is interesting for the following companies:
The technology is available for tanneries or tannery consortiums producing wet blue shavings and trimmings that may upgrade the management of the solid tannery waste by adding value to their by-products.
Also, companies producing or distributing leaf fertilizers interested in the production of protein hydrolysates.
AIICA provides analytical support for the characterisation of the possible raw materials, technological and engineering design to produce protein hydrolysates and chrome liquor and the assistance of the implementation.
The interested companies should to carry out the installation required to develop the process and assess the operation of the plant.
