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Exploitable results
Most of the leather used in the production of footwear is tanned with trivalent chromium. Nowadays the leather scraps generated by footwear and leather goods manufacturers are mainly dumped, and in a few situations incineration is observed, but no added value is given to the resulting ashes. The possibility of using the chromium contained by these ashes and reintroducing it in the tanning process,as well as the application of the ashes as filler in footwear adhesives and building materials was evaluated. For the development of research studies two types of ashes were used. Ones resulting from the incineration of leather scraps in a Fluidised Bed Incinerator (FBI) system and others in a Fixed Grill Incinerator (FGI) system.
The main achievements in each of the research areas studied are presented as follows:
-Application of the recovered chromium in the leather sector.
The methods studied were pyrometallurgical and acid extraction techniques. For each method chromium recoveries of approximately 100 % can be achieved. Hydrometallurgical techniques have proven to be adequate for the extraction of the silica content of FBI ashes with low chromium co-extraction. The chromium recovered from the ashes can then be transformed into a suitable tanning agent. The application of this agent has proven to be adequate since tanning trails both at lab and pilot scale have resulted in leather with good physical and chemical properties. The substitution rates tested on commercial tanning products by the recycled tanning agent were of 25% and 50%, but higher substitution rates are believed to be equally efficient, being only necessary, in this case, to optimise the total volume of solution for the tanning process.
-Application of ashes as filler in footwear adhesives.
For the application of the ashes as filler in footwear adhesives the results indicated that the mass percentage incorporation of the ashes in the adhesives, as well as its particles sizes, needs to be optimised in order to have adhesives with suitable chemical and physical properties. Under optimised conditions the bonding tests performed generally indicate that the adhesive properties are maintained.
-Application of ashes as filler in building materials.
The possible application of the ashes as filler in building materials was also analysed. Although it was verified that the introduction of ashes in cement or concrete decreases its compression resistance. These results were not viable for this application unless a high compression resistance material is not required.
A possible application, which was also studied, was the incorporation of ashes as a pigment. Particularly for FGI ashes, the addition of a small percentage of ash resulted in a material with a very greenish coloration.
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