Recovery and Recycling of Plant Polyphenols and Water from Spent Tanning Liquor

This project involves the development of a first-of-its-kind method for fractionation and recovery of industrial viable plant polyphenol material from spent tanning liquor (a.k.a. used color bath), a waste byproduct from the vegetable tanning and chrome retanning industry. Using a newly developed proprietary process currently being submitted for a provisional patent, a pilot facility will be built and operated to reclaim 400,000 pounds of active plant polyphenols for tanning, and recycle 160,00 gallons of water from 700,000 gallons of spent tanning liquor. Current scientific, engineering, and economic analyses of the method from the Phase I SBIR project indicate that this recovery system located at a 1,000 hide per day American tannery can save the facility over $200,000 year in avoided virgin tannin purchase, and disposal costs. This process seeks to make our water intensive industry more of a closed- loop and help as to achieve our long standing goal of "near zero" waste. There are many non- monetizable values from recovery of tannins including cleaner water being discharged from tanneries, the more efficient use of forest resources, and the preservation of an authentic American industry that uses exclusively renewable American agricultural resources as their primary raw material (cattle hides)