An Efficient Conversion of Chicken Feather Wa...

An Efficient Conversion of Chicken Feather Waste Into Ecofriendly Keratin Based Bioplastic Film

Author Name : Shifna. S, Dr. R. Manju

ABSTRACT

Feathers biomass from poultry industry is considered as an important waste product, which creates serious environmental problems. In this study, keratin was extracted from waste chicken feathers using sodium sulfideas a reducing agent under optimized conditions.Chicken waste feathers were collected from chicken stall, and cleaned then dried under sunlight for 2 days.The feathers were degreased using petroleum ether for overnight, and then, washed with distilled water. The feathers were treated with CTAB (1 g/L) for 3 h to remove microorganism.Feathers were dried under sunlight for 48 hr.Dried feathers were chopped into small pieces.25 g of the chopped feathers were immersed into sodium sulphite anhydrous, and keep this on shaker for 6 hrs.The prepared hydrolysate was filtered twice.Then centrifuged at 10,000 rpm to separate the supernatant.The pH of the solution was adjusted to 3.5 with 2N HCL. Thick layer of precipitates was settled down after 24h. The precipitates were collected and centrifuged for 10 min at 12,000 rpm. Finally, the keratin sediment was collected and lyophilized to obtain keratin powder. The characterization of keratin powder was analysed by using FTIR spectroscopy. Then the bioplastic film is prepared by dissolving PVA powder in water and stirring at 80°C for one hour. Then, the keratin solution was mixed with 10% of glycerol and 30% of PVA solution. Bio plastic is easily degradable and is not harmful to the environment.

Keywords:  Poultry waste, Chicken feather, keratin, bioplastic, Film synthesis.