Exploring the feasibility of substituting mimosa tannin for pine bark powder. A LCA perspective

View/ Open
Issue date
2022Author
Conde Mateos, Mireia
Suggested citation
Conde Mateos, Mireia;
Combalia Cendra, Felip;
Baquero Armans, Grau;
Ollé i Otero, Lluís;
Bacardit i Dalmases, Anna;
.
(2022)
.
Exploring the feasibility of substituting mimosa tannin for pine bark powder. A LCA perspective.
Cleaner Engineering and Technology, 2022, vol. 7, num. 100425, p. 1-9.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2022.100425.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The use of vegetable tannins is a bio-based alternative to chrome tanning. The most used vegetable extracts are Mimosa and Quebracho. To improve the sustainability of the tanning process, a chemically unmodified pine bark could be used as a natural source of tannins. The present study was aimed to evaluate the environmental impact of the use of pine bark powder to obtain vegetable leather through a life cycle assessment. Specifically, the life cycle impact evaluation was performed for both: i) pine bark powder tannin and the atomized mimosa extract production as raw material; and ii) the production process of a tanned leather with pine bark tannin versus a tanned leather with mimosa extract. An eco-friendly and cleaner production method for obtaining pine bark powder was developed. This new production method allows to obtain a reduction in 83% in the 'climate change' impact category. However, when this tannin is applied to obtain a tanned leather, the tanning process shows an increase in all studied impact categories compared with the use of the atomized mimosa extract.