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Official start of CURTBIENTAL project

19th February 2014

After a first meeting held today in Curtidos Badia facilities in Igualada, CURTBIENTAL project is up and running. The purpouse of the project, which is co-funded by the European Commission, is the evaluation of new processes for leather processing. The CURTBIENTAL project will focus on unhairing-liming operations which form part of the most water and pollute intensive processes of leather manufacturing. Additionally, stream integration as well as solid and liquid waste reclamation will be also included in the project scope.

The work already started is structured in 4 phases. The first phase, developed at laboratory scale will allow to define the most promising formulas and process conditions alternatives in the case of Curtidos Badia S.A., including tests with and without recovery of hair; during the 2nd and 3rd phase the new process will be scaled-up at pilot and pre -industrial level respectively, in order to optimize the formulas and operating conditions (pH, temperature, rotation speed) to make viable the new process. Stream integration and by-product recovery will be evaluated during 1st and 3rd phase. Finally, in Phase 4, an environmental decision support tool will be developed to allow the inclusion of environmental criteria during process development and the quantification of the environmental gain expected from the implementation of the new process.