Czech scientists turn chicken feathers into liquid fertilizer
Every year, Czechs consume millions of chickens, leaving behind tons of feathers as a by-product. The feathers typically end up in incinerators or on landfills. Czech scientists have now come up with a way of repurposing this by-product – turning it into liquid fertiliser.
It is estimated that the Czech chicken industry generates about 100 million tons of kilogrammes of feathers each year. The waste is either incinerated, creating large amounts of CO2, or end up in landfills, where they take years to decompose.
Czech scientists have come up with a way of repurposing the feathers, turning them into an environmentally friendly fertiliser. Olga Šolcová from the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, is the head of the project:
“We thought about how we could use the feathers to create something useful and it occurred to us to produce some sort of fertiliser. Amino acids can act as bio-stimulants on plants, which is a well-known fact that has already been tested before. However, it depends on what they are and what they are combined with.”
Poultry feathers are largely made of protein known as keratin, the same fibrous protein that gives hair, hoofs and horns their toughness. Using hydrolysis, it is possible to split the protein into a mixture of free amino acids and peptides, which can then be used as raw material for plant growth.
To transform the feathers into liquid, scientists are using an appliance that resembles a large pressure cooker, says Ms. Šolcová:
“What you can see here is waste feathers, which we further process using hydrolysis. It’s basically the same process as cooking meat in a pot. We put in the feathers and water and we also have to add something that triggers the process of hydrolysis. In our case, it is malic acid.”
After five hours of cooking under high pressure in temperatures between 130 to 135 degrees Celsius, the two kilos of feathers are turned into approximately 15 litres of yellow-brown liquid. After being filtered, they are ready to be used as a natural fertilizer.
Scientists have already tested its effect on fast-growing species of poplars grown for biomass production, noticing a faster growth and better rooting. They have also tried it on a small patch of chilli pepper plants, grown in their lab, says researcher Stanislav Šabata:
“The ones that were watered with the fertilizer had about triple the amount of beautiful big red hot peppers, whereas the ones that weren't watered were very weak and have not produced many fruits.”
The organic fertilizer from poultry feathers should soon be available on the market. Scientists have already started cooperating with a Czech company that should produce it. However, the substance can also be used for removing heavy metals from the soil, says Ms. Šolcová:
“We have tested the compound and we found out that it pulls out heavy metals. We have even succeeded in removing arsenic from the soil.”
Czech scientists are the first in the world to transform chicken feathers into liquid fertilizer, and have acquired a patent for their invention.
