Efficient Chemo-Enzymatic Transformation of Animal Biomass Waste for Eco-Friendly Leather Production.

Sole Sole,Beghetto Beghetto,Taddei Taddei,Franceschi Franceschi

doi:10.3390/molecules24162979

Sole Sole, Beghetto Beghetto + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24162979

Copy DOI

Abstract

Enzymatically processed animal biomass derived from treated bovine hides (wet blue scraps) is herein used as building block for the synthesis of a novel biopolymer. An enzymatic hydrolysis process allows to produce water-soluble lower molecular weight proteins (Bio-A), which are then reacted with glycerol and maleic anhydride (MA) in order to obtain a new intermediate (Bio-IA). With Bio-IA in hand, co-polymerization in the presence of acrylic acid is then carried out. Hydrolysed biomass, intermediates and the final biopolymer (Bio-Ac) have been characterized by means of NMR, FTIR and GPC analysis. Bio-Ac shows good performance when used as retanning agent to produce leather. Physical and mechanical properties of the leather treated with Bio-Ac have been compared with acrylic resin retanned leather, showing similar performance. The reported protocol represents an environmental-friendly interesting alternative to traditional petrochemical based retanning agents, commonly used by the leather industry.

Highlights

Tanning of hides and skins is one of mankind’s oldest trades
Each synthetic step has been optimised by varying reaction parameters and Methods the products fully characterised by NMR and FTIR spectroscopy
Hydrolysed proteins derived from industrial waste biomass are used in this study as starting material for the synthesis of a new acrylic biopolymer (Bio-Ac)

Summary

Introduction

Tanning of hides and skins is one of mankind’s oldest trades. The EU leather industry contributes considerably to the social and economic scenario, counting nearly 24,000 companies and 400,000 employees, with a turnover of more than 31 billion Euros [1,2]. The tanning of hides involves a set of sequential steps starting from salted hides. Tanning, retanning, and fat-liquoring are the most relevant transformations in the process and may require the use of polymeric materials. Over 85% of the hides processed worldwide are tanned with basic chromium sulphate due to its very high efficiency, low cost and good quality of the leather obtained.

Methods

Results

Conclusion