Reusing of a hide waste for leather fatliquoring

Leather production requires several steps. Among the steps, beam house operations have the purpose of cleaning and preparing the hide structure to improve tanning. During these operations, the natural fats are removed, in order to prevent undesired reactions as well as to increase the reaction sites for tanning. The removal of natural fats has disadvantages: the fibers stick together, which makes the leather become stiff. To avoid this, after tanning the leather is submitted to a fatliquoring step. Fatliquoring makes the leather softer by adding an oil layer to the fibrils. The objective is to analyze quantitatively the fats removed from hides, to develop a way of reusing them in leather fatliquoring and to evaluate fatliquoring absorption. This study shows a way to use the natural fats removed from the skins in the beam house operations in the fatliquoring, thereby, transforming a waste stream into a valuable resource. This process integration can increase profitability and reduce environmental impacts, which are a large concern in the leather industry.