Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The creative use of all agricultural byproducts is essential to the agricultural economy and to maintaining a moderate cost for food and fiber. Feathers are a byproduct of poultry production. There is considerable interest in the development of value-added products from this relatively inexpensive material. Currently most of this byproduct is rendered (cooked), ground, and used in animal feed for poultry and other meat-producing animals. The recycling of any animal byproducts in feed is being called into question because animal byproducts in feed are suspected in the transmission of disease in animals and possibly to humans. This suspicion has led to a ban in Europe on use of feather meal for animal feed, a restriction that may affect the current practice in the US. Alternative uses for feather by product are needed. The proposed research is directed at the goal of developing acceptable and valuable uses for the feather byproduct of poultry processing. Among the
potential uses for feathers are: insulation, filtration, absorption media, filler/reinforcement for composites, and polymeric raw material for fibers and films. The proposed research will focus on two applications: feather fiber in filtration media, and feather protein as a polymeric raw material for fibers and films.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
60%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The creative use of all agricultural byproducts is essential to the agricultural economy and to maintaining a moderate cost for food and fiber. Feathers are a byproduct of poultry production. As with many byproducts, the economic value is relatively low. There is considerable interest in the development of value-added products from this relatively inexpensive material. The research work proposed herein is directed at this goal. Among the potential uses for feathers are: insulation, filtration, absorption media, filler/reinforcement for composites, and polymeric raw material for fibers and films. Thus, the objective of this research is to find alternative, and high value uses for feather materials. The proposed research will investigate two applications with high potential: feather fiber in filtration media, and feather protein as a polymeric raw material for fibers and films. The specific objectives are: 1. to evaluate feather fiber from various sources and separation
processes for the manufacture of nonwovens. 2. to evaluate nonwovens containing feather fiber for filtration applications. 3. to evaluate the cleanliness of feather fiber and the ability of microorganisms to grow on feather containing fabrics. 4. to develop techniques for using feather protein as a polymeric raw material for fibers and films.
Project Methods
The development of filtration media from feathers will involve the cleaning and separation of useful fiber from the processing byproduct, the manufacture of nonwoven filter material containing the feather fiber, and the evaluation of filter performance. Cleaning of feathers will be monitored by microbiological assays, and is critical to the use of feather fiber in any consumer application, particularly air filtration. Previous attempts at processing feather fiber on typical nonwovens machinery have been troublesome because the separation processes degrade the useful fiber length. Sheet production on a paper machine is possible, but the recirculating water with feather particulates and solubles provides an ideal medium for microbial growth. We will concentrate on obtaining the maximum usable fiber length. The use of feather protein as a polymeric raw material is considered essential to the project as much of the feather is not fibrous and is therefore unsuitable for
direct use in fabric or paper like applications. While particle of quill might find use as inexpensive fillers for composites of some sort, the use of the protein as raw material will require substantial effort. Breaking the disulfide linkages in the protein, dissolution and shape formation, followed by reformation of the disulfide linkages are considered the critical steps required for protein use. Initially we will concentrate on the production of protein fibers. The absence of crosslinked material is critical to the extrusion of fibers (or films) and the complete elimination of the cystine crosslinks is judged to be the most difficult problem. The protein can be dissolved in dilute base and extruded into dilute acid which will cause resolidificaiton. Process optimization to obtain adequate fiber properties is needed for successful use of feather protein as a fiber raw material.