Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

A new way to convert poultry feathers, wool waste into animal feed & fertilizer

September 17, 2021
poultry feathers wool waste into animal feed

Indian researchers have found an economical way to convert keratin waste such as human hair, wool, and poultry feathers to fertilizers, and pet and animal feed.

India produces a huge amount of human hair, poultry feather waste, and wool waste every year. These squander are unloaded, covered, utilized for landfilling, or burned, expanding ecological perils, contamination, and danger to general wellbeing and expanding ozone-depleting substance discharges.

They are also cheap wellsprings of amino acids and protein, underlining their capability to be utilized as animal feed and manure.

The Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, along with its students, has developed a technology for the confidentiality of keratin residue food for pets and fertilizer for plants. This state-of-the-art technology is patented, easily scalable, environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and will make amino acid-rich liquid fertilizers more affordable than the products currently marketed.

The institute used advanced oxidation for the conversion of the waste to marketable fertilizers and animal feed. The key technology behind this involves pre-treatment followed by hydrolysis of keratin using a technique called Hydrodynamic Cavitation, which involves vaporization, bubble generation, and bubble implosion in a flowing liquid.

The current chemicals and physical methods for such conversion are energy-intensive, chemically hazardous, and involve multiple steps resulting in a higher cost of the final product. As calculated by the team, with this technology, the cost of the product at a large-scale plant, processing inputs of one-ton per, is up to three times cheaper than the existing market product.

The scientists are currently implementing this technology at a large scale in collaboration with Revoltech Technologies Private Limited, Gujarat. This advancement in production will make efficient liquid biofertilizers available to farmers at an affordable rate.