Separation Technology to Remove Polymer Coating and Contaminants from Post-Consumer Leather
The main aim of the challenge is to achieve true circularity and meet customers' net-zero goals by transitioning to processing coated post-consumer and post-industrial leather waste from end-of-life products, such as car seats, aircraft interiors, cutting room floor waste and footwear. The challenge involves developing a separation technology to remove durable polymer layers (PU coatings, protective finishes, and adhesives) from sheets of leather, leather pieces and leather fibres. These polymer coatings can fragment and contaminate the leather fibres during mechanical processing, making them less suitable for the challenge holder’s manufacturing process.
Opportunity
Challenge opens
12/11/2025
Challenge closes
02/01/2026
Benefit
The challenge holder is looking to use open innovation to identify a novel separation technology for polymer contaminants and finishes from coated leather products, leather off cuts and leather fibres, thereby improving the processing of industrial and post-consumer leather waste from end-of-life products and industrial waste leather into sustainable materials. Selected solutions will be trialled in pilot studies at the challenge holder state-of-the-art multi-million sqm annual capacity facility in the East of England for pilot-scale testing and validation of separation technologies. Upon successful trials, there is the possibility of further adoption, and the challenge holder is willing to co-invest through their £3+ million annual R&D budget to support promising novel technology development. The challenge holder can provide technical advisory support throughout development phases, including material testing/analytics, process optimisation, and scale-up guidance. They can also provide real-world testing environment where separation technologies can be evaluated under commercial conditions.
Background
The challenge holder is a global leader in sustainable and circular textiles They employ approximately 150 people in the UK and export 90% of their production.
The company processes 'wet blue' leather waste, which is uncoated chrome-tanned leather from manufacturing processes, through their proven production technology to create high-performance, clean and sustainable materials for automotive, aviation, and consumer markets.
To achieve true circularity and meet Net Zero goals they are looking to identify novel separation technologies for polymer contaminants and finishes from sheets / pieces of leather waste and leather fibres that enables them to process leather waste from end-of-life products or coated leather waste into sustainable materials.