Being one of the largest and oldest tanning countries in Europe, Spain has developed two technical centres of excellence for fundamental research and technical service for tanners. The CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientíicas) in Barcelona and AIICA (Associación de Investigación de las Indústrias del Curtido y Anexas) in the tanning town of Igualada, Catalonia, are both involved in regional, national and European research projects.
AIICA
After many years working in the tanning and leather chemical industry, Xavier Marginet has taken over as director at AIICA alongside Dr José Adzet, research director. Marginet has had many years’ experience in the leather chemical industry working with Hispano Quimica and La Forestal Tanica. Adzet has been with association since 1962 when it was based in Barcelona. He transferred with AIICA to Igualada in 1994.
The 25 staff at AIICA are involved in a number of projects including alternative preservation methods, salt reduction in the effluent and alternative methods of hide preservation such as hide chilling/icing. Other projects include a number aimed at reducing the environmental load for tanners. ‘Up to 8-10% of tanner’s costs in the EU are spent in environmental issues. We are looking at ways to recycle waste materials from the leather industry such as recovering and composting waste hair from the tanning process’, Adzet, told Leather International.
Funding for the organisation comes from a number of sources which include the Spanish tanning industry, chemical suppliers, the Spanish national and regional Catalan governments and the European Union. With time AIICA are finding more and more of their work funded through the EU in collaboration with other scientific and technical institutes throughout Europe. The new AIICA building was opened in 2001 and includes modern physical and chemical testing laboratories, offices and a fully equipped pilot plant to carry out small and medium sized trials. Also included is a modern lecture theatre and library. The facilities now rank as one of the most modern in the world and are a great asset.
Recently, the association has been looking to expand their membership services beyond the Spanish borders and have highlighted central America as a potential growth area. They have recently expanded membership in Ecuador.
CSIC
CSIC is the main Spanish organisation of the Spanish Science and Technology Ministry based in Madrid. Part of the CSIC is based in Barcelona and includes the CID department, which includes the Institute of Molecular Biology and the Institute of Chemical and Environmental research. The leather science and technology department is one of five departments in ecotechnologies department made up from the Institute of Chemical and Environmental Research at the CID.
Professor Jaime Cot is head of the leather department and has also recently been appointed as president of the IULTCS for two years. He is able to draw from the resources of 42 people across seven groups within the ecotechnologies department. These include dioxins, mass spectrometry, micro organic contaminants, structural characterisation, statistics and modelling, clean technologies and the processing of solid waste. The latter two groups are directly involved with the leather sector. Cot is head of the processing of solid waste group and Dr Augusti Marsal heads the clean technologies group.
10-12 staff or research students are directly involved with the two groups. Unlike AIICA, work carried out in the ecotechnologies department is more fundamental and is looking at the long term environmental and new technology aspects of the leather sector. Cot’s group are currently looking at new ways of recycling tannery waste by finding alternative uses for collagenic materials not used in the tanning process.
The paper ‘Adding value to collagenic biomaterials’ was presented at the IULTCS congress in Mexico and research by the group has found new methods for extracting chrome and other chemicals to obtain collagenic materials. This has been used in a range of applications such as an adhesive, biodegradable film and in leather finishing chemicals. The work is ongoing.
