Valorisation of waste feathers: Treatments and characterization

Abstract

Environmental concerns are focused on the search for environmentally friendly, biodegradable, sustainable, renewable and widely available materials. Feather wastes have very special structures and important physiological functions, their valorization offers solutions to these problems. More than 30 million tons of chicken feathers are generated each year by the Moroccan poultry industry. This waste is unfit for valorisation due to the contaminant; debris, skin and blood from the poultry industry. These contaminants should be removed before their valorisation. The aim of this research is to study different treatments (sodium dodecyl sulfate, ethanol, Hydrogen peroxide and Acetone) in order to evaluate their effectiveness in removing the contaminants from the feather's surface obtained from the slaughter, storage or transport of these poultry wastes. Furthermore, the effects of treatments on the physicochemical and mechanical properties are studied. The results of the treatments showed efficiency at higher concentrations and the best results were attributed to treatment with the sodium dodecyl sulfate with no significant differences in structure and the chemical composition. These results were confirmed with Scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and EDX analysis.