Congratulations to RomarFree S.r.l. for being selected as a partner of the project “New processes for depilation of bovine hair and its exploitation by enzymatic hydrolysis”. The ENZYCAL project aims to demonstrate the full-scale applicability of new enzymatic processes for the tanning cycle of hair removal, as a low environmental impact alternative to the current lime and sulphide based lime.

The ENZYCAL project, provided by ARCHA S.r.l., a group of international companies specialized in environmental analysis, Research & Development, Specialized Training and Industrialization of chemical products and laboratory management software, will also take care of the valorization of recovered hair, studying both a new process, always enzymatic, of hydrolysis for obtaining keratin hydrolysates, and adopting supercritical CO2 extraction processes for obtaining melanin and structured keratin.

In the project, it is planned to validate the use of keratin hydrolysates, structured keratin and melanin in the tanning cycle as raw materials for the formulation of finishing products. More, additional ways of valorization of these products will be investigated in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, where protein compounds always derived from the processing of tannery waste are currently widely used.

The company will be involved in the programme until February 2026.