LC3 : WASTE-BASED AND BIOBASED LEATHER COMPOSITE

The leather industry processes leather into various end products. During processing, over 40% of waste is generated from approximately 30,000 hides a day. This is a serious amount of waste and an opportunity for biomaterials in the near future. The reason for Material Sense LAB to initiate the materials research project LASTING LEATHER LAB, where left over leather is transformed into new viable products. We are currently working on a leather composite with the partners in the PRO-PHBV project.

Seven Dutch companies and institutes have joined forces and are developing an application that shows the unique characteristics of biobased materials and offers an outlook in our future biobased society. Ahrend, AMS Institute, Material Sense LAB, NPSP, Paques Biomaterials, TU Delft, Bureau Waardenburg, are collaborating in the so-called PRO-PHBV project: industrial residual leather derived from the cutting and processing is combined with the biopolymer PHBV, made from organic residual streams and creates a leather waste-PHBV composite (LC3), which can be used to produce a circular material for office furniture components, such as an armrest.

Currently, the project partners are testing small prototypes of the leather waste and biopolymer composite in different circumstances and environments. Different temperatures, pressures, pretreatments, and various types of pulverized leather waste have been tested, providing the information and data needed to make the right material for the application. This information is also used for the life cycle assessment (LCA) to confirm the environmental impact of this new material.

Besides the processing specifications and the environmental impact, it’s also important to investigate the user needs. What feels comfortable, and how do people experience the fact that it’s made from waste? PRO-PHBV is determined to make the waste-based and biobased leather composite a success and a multidisciplinary approach is the way to do that.