Lanxess receives innovation award for extraction of retanning agents

Speciality chemicals company Lanxess has received the 2017 German Innovation Award for Climate and the Environment for an innovative technology developed for the recycling of residues from the leather manufacturing process.

Under the title ‘Resource-efficient production of leather chemicals’ (ReeL), the company collaborated with the research institute Invite from Leverkusen on the realisation of a concept for a modular plant for the production of a retanning agent with the brand name ‘X-Biomer’ from leather offcuts, trimmings and shavings which, until now, has been a waste product for disposal. The plant can be operated on-site in tanneries.

A sustainable production concept

A tannery will be able to automatically and largely independently produce a part of its own needs for retanning agents, such as those offered by Lanxess in its X-Biomer range. “This project is a very promising step towards an even more sustainable production concept,” explained Dietrich Tegtmeyer, head of the project at Lanxess. “While, on the one hand, ‘on-site’ and ‘just in time’ production brings enormous savings of resources in terms of energy, logistics and packaging, on the other hand, by-products like shavings containing collagen can be utilised as a raw material for the production of the retanning chemicals required.”

A medium-sized tannery produces between one and two tonnes/day of shavings. With a production plant leased from Lanxess, the tannery would be able to produce a comparable volume of liquid X-Biomer for retanning. The process recycles shavings completely, without any residues or emissions. 

The three-year joint project with the partners Invite and Heller-Leder has an investment volume totalling €5 million. The modular production plant constructed by Invite is currently being tested under realistic production conditions at the Heller-Leder tannery.