Lanxess offers more detail on ‘do-it-yourself’ retanning idea
24/03/2017
Its idea is that tanners will use, on site, specially developed manufacturing equipment to recycle the shavings and combine them with “organic biomass” to produce on their own retanning agents that match those in the X-Biomer range that Lanxess launched in 2014. It will call the new products X-Biomer INSITU because tanners will be able to make them at the tannery.
In a follow-up discussion with leatherbiz, the company said: “There are many filler type products on the market, based on proteins. Our patent-protected X-Biomer chemistry is something different and unique. It is a two-step process: first a hydrolysation of carbohydrates and collagen. and then a functionalisation of a blend of the hydolysates with a cross-linking polymer reaction.
“This broadens the application range of X-Biomer retanning agents beyond those of standard filler auxiliary products.”
Lanxess began looking at this idea in January 2016, working with partners at Leverkusen-based research group Invite to develop the manufacturing equipment and on research and development to customise the chemistry for this process.
“We believe our chemistry is different,” Lanxess concluded, “and have IP-protected our way forward. X-Biomer INSITU is not a new product, but a new production concept of this type of chemistry: on site and on demand recycling of the shavings in a modular production unit inside the tannery.”
Separately, Lanxess announced on March 23 that it is raising the prices of its organic leather chemicals with immediate effect. It said it was taking this measure because of “increasing pressure” on operating costs and on the cost of raw materials. The increase for the product groups affected will range from an upper single- to double-digit percentages.
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