Akzo Nobel/GRIT have won this year’s European Responsible Care award, following the 2012 Responsible Care award by the Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI).

GRIT working with Dutch partner Akzo Nobel Industrial Chemical business developed DemytheÒLDD technology based on dimethyleter (DME). When used to remove water and grease from animal skins –which are important for the manufacture of leather goods and various foods– it makes the process far more sustainable and less environment friendly to health than more conventional methods.

With this new project we continue to contribute to environmental improvement.

• The project LDD DeMythe ®, a global pioneer, is a sustainable technology that offers degreasing, drying and obtaining proteins for food, through a closed loop, any kind of animal skin.

• This technology uses closed-loop DME as solvent extraction with a high degreasing, removing the water and fat from animal skins to low temperature. Once the process, the DME is separated from water and fat, and then is recycled. The recovery rate is> 99%.

• The ultimate goal of this innovative project is to have less waste, high degreasing and drying, low power consumption, high final product quality and high efficiency at low cost.

Toni Giralt, CEO and Jaume Obrador, Director of Operations, visited the Great Exhibition Fair CRH 2012 in Beijing held from 11 to 13 April 2012 to commemorate its 25th anniversary, to learn about developments in the sector and assist as invited to several events organized by local businesses. This fair is a meeting point for Asian companies in the sector with companies from other continents. During these days when, companies tighten business and personal relationships between them, which is the basis for future business.

GRIT,S.L. in co-operation with the Multinational AKZO-NOBEL, has developed and patented worlwide, a new process for degreasing and dehidrating animal skin for the leather industry as well as food protein industry.

This technology avoids the use of water which is always the main contamination source in traditional processes, basically for the use of tensoactives and additives which are difficult to remove from the original water.