New process helps Wollsdorf Leather reduce lime fleshings waste by 85%
03/04/2014
Chief executive, Andreas Kindermann, called the development “another big step towards enhanced environmental protection”.
Mr Kindermann explained that Wollsdorf was generating 10,000 tonnes of lime fleshings a year and had previously had to pay “a high price” to dispose of the material. “It’s now valuable raw material that we can sell for the production of biodiesel,” he said.
The process the tannery has begun to use involves heating the lime fleshings to a temperature of around 85 degrees Celsius, turning the animal fat in the fleshings to liquid. Grease, residual solids and other liquids are then separated from each other in a three-phase centrifugal process, leaving Wollsdorf with 85% less lime-fleshings waste than before.
Wollsdorf Leather is currently competing in the fourth programme of Tannery of the Year as a finalist for Europe.
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