Leather Cluster Barcelona maintains its commitment on the path towards Zero Waste. The cluster is driving various projects with the aim of achieving the maximum valorisation of organic waste and resources.

In this respect, since 2021 Leather Cluster Barcelona has been promoting the ReGenera project in order to gain a broader view of how to optimise the valorisation of by-products and waste from the production process across the entire value chain of the leather industry. Re-Genera pursues excellence in valorisation in order to transform the by-products and organic resources from the tanning process in Catalonia, through technology and innovation, into high value-added products such as oils for various applications, functional proteins for food or amino acids used as biostimulants for organic farming.

Two further projects have grown out of the overall ReGenera project: ReGras Pro, developed by the cluster in 2022 to valorise fleshings and obtain oils and proteins, and Leather ReBionergia.

The ReBionergia project has been under way since 2023 and its purpose is to find an outlet for terminal waste, that is, waste which, once the best available techniques have been applied, still has no alternative other than landfill, as is the case with leather trimmings or sludge from treatment plants.

In addition to Leather Cluster Barcelona, the ReBioenergia project involves Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació SL (IDR), the research group of the Universitat de Lleida (UdL), A3 Leather Innovation Center, and the Bioenergy Cluster of Catalonia (CBC). The CBC brings together the bioenergy business sector and works to drive energy projects that contribute to the country’s transformation into a competitive and circular economic model.

This project has received the support of ACCIÓ, the public agency for the competitiveness of Catalan companies attached to the Ministry of Business and Labour of the Generalitat de Catalunya, within the framework of the grants for initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of the members of the Catalunya Clústers Programme relating, among other things, to the implementation of strategic changes, innovations and new trends in the cluster or in the sector’s companies.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is directing and coordinating the Leather ReBioenergia project in the conviction that the leather tanning industry and its value chain need to find future solutions to provide advanced treatment for terminal waste, promote decarbonisation, channel the best treatment of goods made of leather (arising from Take Back policies), and generate energy not derived from fossil resources.

In this respect, the thermal treatment and energy valorisation system known as pyrolysis has been identified as ideal.

Pyrolysis is the thermal degradation of a substance in the absence of oxygen, whereby these substances are broken down by heat without combustion reactions taking place, resulting in inert ash and a gas that can be valorised as a natural energy source.

In the course of the ReBioenergia project, various waste streams from the leather industry have been tested through pyrolysis thermal treatment at the company Pyrocore.

PyroCore, based in Brussels with a research centre in the United Kingdom, is a GreenTech company that offers compact pyrolysis technology for industrial-scale waste management, producing energy and reusable by-products.

One of the most significant results of the project’s trials is that the effectiveness of pyrolysis for treating leather industry waste such as trimmings or treatment plant sludge has been demonstrated. In other words, the pyrolysis process offers a hopeful route for converting leather industry waste into energy and valorisable materials, emerging as a very promising option both in terms of environmental management and of process optimisation.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is a competitive cooperation environment for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector within the framework of Shared Value policies. The cluster is an accredited body within the Catalonia Clusters programme and has the support of Acció.