The project aims to demonstrate, on a semi-industrial scale, the use of chemically modified natural tannins (CMNT) in the production of eco-friendly leather across a wide range of items, from footwear to leather goods.

The use of CMNT ensures a tanning process with fewer hazardous chemicals, sustainable costs, reduced waste, and a better circular approach (recycling/reuse of production waste) compared with traditional processes based on chromium, synthetic tannins, and aldehydes.

This is made possible thanks to:

• An innovative purification process that will allow the separation of Concentrated Purified Natural Tannins (CPNT) from non-tanning substances within chestnut and quebracho extracts, which are the most widely used in the sector.
• A chemical modification of CPNT that will allow the production of the final tanning agent, CMNT.
• A new tanning process that includes these modified tannins in order to achieve high-level properties and performance, while also transforming production waste into organic fertilisers.
• The replicability of the LIFE I’M TAN process in other tanneries across the EU.
• An analysis of the impacts of this innovative process through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Cost (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (sLCA), with the resulting Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), and Ecolabel certification to demonstrate the sustainability of the entire supply chain, from the extraction of natural tannins to the production of leather goods, all the way to the management of tanning wastewater.

The main objectives of the project are:

• No use of chromium salts.
• No use of aldehydes and phenols.
• A 25% reduction in the tannins required for tanning.
• 30% recycling of tanning baths.
• A 60% reduction in water consumption.
• A 25% reduction in the biodegradability ratio (COD/BOD5) in wastewater.
• Recovery of 80% of non-tanning agents for reuse in animal feed.
• Recycling of 20% of CMNT-treated leather and its waste for fertiliser production.