Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KARMA2020 (Industrial Feather Waste Valorisation for Sustainable KeRatin based MAterials.)

Teaser

Poultry industry generates huge amounts of waste each year. Worldwide 24 billion chickens are consumed annually and around 8.5 billion tons of poultry feather are produced. According to European Commission, 13.1 million tons of poultry meat was produced only in the European...

Summary

Poultry industry generates huge amounts of waste each year. Worldwide 24 billion chickens are consumed annually and around 8.5 billion tons of poultry feather are produced. According to European Commission, 13.1 million tons of poultry meat was produced only in the European Union (EU-28) in 2014, with an estimated generation of 3.1 million tons feather waste. Despite their high availability and their exploitation in countries such as USA or New Zealand, in Europe there is still a very limited use of feathers as raw material in industrial applications. As a consequence, at present the majority of the poultry feathers are disposed in landfills, incinerated, or a minor part converted into low nutritional value animal food. The disposal of feathers in landfill sites or incinerators is set to become increasingly problematic in the future. Therefore, the development of alternative industrial conversion methods and exploitation strategies for poultry feathers will not only increase the value of feathers as raw material but also reduce environment impact and health hazards associated to landfill in line with the Landfill directive (Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999).
In this context, the aim of KaRMA2020 Project is the industrial manufacture and exploitation of sustainable raw materials from feather waste to develop innovative green products for high impact cross-sectorial markets.
This main objective will be reached through the following steps:
• Improving feather waste pre-treatment and conditioning processes
• Optimizing the isolation of keratin and other feather-based raw materials
• Validation of the feather-based raw materials for bio-based end-products
The use of efficient conversion technologies for feathers processing, together with the development of keratin based products for high impact sectors such as: fertilizers, biodegradable food packaging, technical coatings for textiles, and thermoset bio-based composites for construction and transport will enable large-scale manufacturing of feather based raw materials, allowing their marketing at a competitive cost.

Work performed

Within Work Package 2 feather pre-treatment methods have been stablished. First, the established sanitation protocols ensure that feathers are suitable for handling, storage and further processing. Regarding pre-treatments, three different methods have been investigated: i) grinding, ii) steam explosion and iii) chemical modification. The most suitable pre-treatment prior to feathers processing has been defined for each of the targeted conversion technologies.
Within Work Package 3, for each of the targeted feather-based raw materials (keratin hydrolysate, bioplastics, flame retardants polyurethanes, thermoset resins and non-woven fabrics), pre-treated feathers have been transformed using different approaches. Conversion technologies investigated have shown the potential of each of the technologies for producing feather-based raw materials at lab scale. As part of this Work Package, humins, a by-product of sugars dehydration process, has also been investigated.
Within Work Package 4, the upscaling of the different conversion technologies is being addressed. On one hand, simulation software tools and customised mathematical models for predicting the mass and energy balances, as well as key equipment sizes for feather processing and production of keratin-based products, have been used. On the other hand, industrial partners have assessed the different key factors affecting the upscaling each of the technologies developed in Work Package 3.
The validation of feather-based raw materials by specific end-products manufacturing is being addressed in Work Package 5. The specifications and production guidelines for each of the targeted end-products have been collected. Some prototypes using feather-based raw materials obtained in Work Package 3 have been successfully manufactured.
In Work Package 6 data collection for LCA and LCC has been already carried out. In addition, the elaboration of an integrated waste management strategy is being performed. As part of Work Package 6, the risk assessment of the project is being revised each 6 months in order to reduce risks to a minimum level and to assure the highest possible safety and reliability.
In Work Package 7 studies for scalability and replicability are being carried out. Despite a number of ongoing and completed R&D and demonstration projects, there are still very few successful full scale industrial implementations across Europe.
Visual identity and communication materials (brochure, leaflet, website…) were created in this Work Package. On the other hand, as part of the business plan, a deep market analysis is being accomplished in this Work Package.
Finally, in recognition of the innovations of the project, KaRMA2020 received several awards such as the SPIRE “2017-EU Process Industry Conference” as the more inSPIRE-ing project in the pitching session “Valorisation of different energy sources/Adaptable processes using alternative feedstock” in the SPIRE “2017-EU Process Industry Conference”, and it also won the Gold Medal with a Special Jury Mention and Special award from the Joint Stock Company Design & Research Institute for Information Technology, Signaling and Telecommunication on Railway Transport JSC NIIAS, Russia for the invention “Hydrophobic feathers based nonwovens obtained by spun-bonded technique”.

Final results

During the first 18 months of the project, the consortium has developed specific technologies for both feathers pre-treatment and feathers conversion into new raw materials. The conversion of feathers has been accomplished through either: i) innovative and sustainable approaches (already patented by some of KaRMA2020 partners) and ii) conventional and economic techniques.
Most of these technologies have proven to be efficient at lab scale for feather-based raw materials manufacturing. In this sense, some demonstrators of the targeted end-products have been already produced: granulated fertilizers made of keratin, composites prepared by the combination of non-woven keratin fabrics and humins-based resins, PU/keratin coated textiles and bioplastics produced by extrusion and injection moulding.
Due to the innovation potential of KaRMA2020, the project will have relevant impacts:
• Technical impact, by the optimization of feather processing methods from lab to industrial scale.
• Industrial impact, by the manufacturing of bio-based raw materials and by the production and the validation of end-products.
• Environmental impact, by reducing the negative environmental effect due to the feather waste as well as by the replacement of non-renewable primary raw material with renewable raw materials for the industrial production.
• Economic impact, by the promotion of innovative applications and products with higher value from the current waste and creating new business opportunities for industrial partners
• Social impact, by increasing the impact in the market, both at the end users as well as at the manufacturer’s level, facilitating the introduction of environmentally friendly, non-oil dependent raw materials. In addition, new business opportunities will create new jobs in the involved industrial partners.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.karma2020.eu.