Abstract: Every year, more than 11 billion pounds of unused feathers result from the poultry industry worldwide, which in effect impose a difficult disposal process to the environment. Chicken feathers are an abundant, inconvenient and troublesome waste product from the poultry industry that can be utilised as a source of keratin. In addition to keratin, feathers contain other fatty and waxy substances. An original chicken feather contains many biological organisms together with other dirt from when they were plucked from chickens. Unprocessed chicken feathers are potentially biologically hazardous, due to the presence of blood borne pathogens, so it is imperative that they are decontaminated upon receipt. The aim of this work is conducting a comparative study of different purification methods
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The optimum process conditions of chemical method were ethanol 5 mL/L, pH value 4.0-6.0, the washing temperature 50 ℃, the washing time 20 min, dosage of feather special detergent 5% (owf) and liquor ratio 1∶30. The best process conditions of biological method were as follows: the hydrogen peroxide solution 50 mL/L, pH value 4.0-6.0, the washing temperature 50℃, the washing time 10min, the dosage of acid protease 3% (owf) and liquor ratio 1∶30. The result showed that the differences were very great in the whiteness, the grease content and the bacterial content of washed chicken feather fibers. Visual observation, infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterise the feathers and residues after extraction.The conclusion was that the effect of washed chicken feather fibers by biological method was superior to that of washed chicken feather fibers by chemical method. The whiteness was 70.3%, the grease content was 0.82% and the bacterial content was 2.6×103cfu/g by biological
The optimum process conditions of chemical method were ethanol 5 mL/L, pH value 4.0-6.0, the washing temperature 50 ℃, the washing time 20 min, dosage of feather special detergent 5% (owf) and liquor ratio 1∶30. The best process conditions of biological method were as follows: the hydrogen peroxide solution 50 mL/L, pH value 4.0-6.0, the washing temperature 50℃, the washing time 10min, the dosage of acid protease 3% (owf) and liquor ratio 1∶30. The result showed that the differences were very great in the whiteness, the grease content and the bacterial content of washed chicken feather fibers. Visual observation, infrared spectroscopy, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterise the feathers and residues after extraction.The conclusion was that the effect of washed chicken feather fibers by biological method was superior to that of washed chicken feather fibers by chemical method. The whiteness was 70.3%, the grease content was 0.82% and the bacterial content was 2.6×103cfu/g by biological