Chemicals company repurposes olive oil waste for tanning
Dermochimica, an Italian supplier to the tanning industry, has developed a way of extracting the tannins from waste from the olive industry to tan leather.
Olive mill wastewater, from the production of olive oil, contains phenol and polyohenolic compounds with antimicrobial properties, which can prevent the formation of chrome V in retanning, according to the company, and can also be used to tan skins.
The company says that from 100kg of olives, between 18kg and 22kg of olive oil can be extracted, leaving between 50kg and 80kg of wastewater. In Europe, between 2014 and 2015, 4.8 million tonnes of olive wastewater needed to be disposed of.
Dermochimica says the antioxidant power of Hydroil used in wet blue retanning stops the formation of chrome VI, and it can replace all synthetic retanning agents containing formaldehyde.
The company said: “Hydroil is the perfect solution to obtain eco sustainable and safe chrome-tanned leathers.”
Germany tannery Weinheimer Leder also uses residues from the olive oil industry to tan leather, but principally uses the leaves of the olive trees that are traditionally discarded and burned.
