Professor Tony Covington, emeritus professor of leather science at the University of Northampton, has said he has high hopes for the use of bead technology in tanning. Xeros Technology Group, a UK start-up that has developed a patented polymer bead system that it claims can save large volumes of water in leather production, has been working with the university since the start of 2014 to adapt its technology, which it says works well in dry cleaning applications, to leather production. In May 2015, Xeros entered into a partnership with major leather chemicals manufacturer Lanxess, saying it hoped this would lead to its being able to use its bead technology to process high-quality leather “on a commercial and scaleable basis”. Professor Covington brought the subject up at the fourth “Future of European Leather” conference, organised by COTANCE in Glasgow on December 10. He said that he was restricted in what he could tell delegates by legal agreements and did not mention any technology provider by name, but went on to refer to bead technology as “a new development in which water is replaced by a solid medium in a very different approach” to leather manufacture. “The delivery mechanism for leather chemicals [polymer beads instead of water] is different,” he explained, “and that opens up new possibilities. For example, it will make it much easier for tanners to use reactive dyes. He went on to say that for new ideas to be a success in the leather industry, they have to be compatible with what tanners can reasonably be expected to do in their existing production set-ups, but he insisted that bead technology is “practical and developable”. One tanner in the audience, Colin Wade, the managing director of Andrew Muirhead & Son, asked the professor if he really thought it would be possible for companies to replace all water throughout the whole of the leather production process. Professor Covington answered: “In principle, the possibility is there.”
