Biodegradable Pots Our biodegradable pots use a state of the art composite made of agricultural residues mainly poultry feathers: □ 100 % natural □ Environmentally friendly □ Biodegradable and compostable □ Non-Hygienic □ Temperature resistant □ Contemporary design and finish □ Less energy-intensive process Potential Benefits ∗ Increased value to poultry farmers for feather byproducts ∗ New “green” industry created for processing feathers and producing nursery pots. ∗ Decreased loads of used nursery pots to landfills. ∗ Consumer-friendly biodegradable pots which may be buried during planted or composted ∗ Horticulture industry benefits from customized nursery pots with differ- ent biodegradable half-lives ∗ Reduced dependence on petroleum products Did you know? 9 1/3 lb. of a 5 pound chicken is feathers! 9 More than 625 million broiler chickens per year are produced on the Delmarva Peninsula 9 That’s 42 Million pounds of feathers! 9 Nearly four billion pounds of chicken feather waste generated by the U.S. poultry industry each year 9 Feathers can be considered one of the most abundant materials in agricultural wastes Improving product/process sustainability and profitability Drs. Masud Huda and Walter Schmidt converted feather keratin into pellets using existing commercial polymer proc- essing equipment, and then use advanced analytical techniques including Raman Spectroscopy and Mechanical & Thermal Analysis equipments in evaluating and in optimizing formulation composition. In- venting horticultural nursery pots formu- lations which can be composted and con- tain no petroleum–based components made for the nursery and horticultural industry is part of a Cooperative Re- search and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Horticultural Re- search Institute. Project Objective The main purpose of this project is to develop the enabling technology that I transforms poultry feathers into value- added products for biodegradable nursery pots manufacturing. Background More than 2 billion pounds dry feathers are available annually in the U.S. from poultry production. Presently feather meal is by far the most common end product made from feathers. Feather is entirely composed of the structural protein Keratin. As a natural biopolymer, keratin is self-sustainable, continuously renewable and biodegradable, Harvesting keratin to make value-added products in a useful commercially viable- form has proven successful at the pilot scale level. Proto- type product include: high surface area filters, light weight insulation mats, strong light weight protein based con- struction materials, composite polymers and biodegradable agricultural weed control films. BIODEGRADABLE NURSERY POTS FROM POULTRY FEATHERS Why feather nursery pot? 9 Each spring gardeners plant seed- lings in soft plastic starter trays. 9 These trays are not recyclable because the chemical composition is not predictable and/or chemi- cally incompatible with each other. 9 Plastic cannot be cost-effectively cleaned for reuse and in land fills can easily last decades. 9 Current pots are made from petroleum products. Keratin Feather Fibers Clear Keratin Film High Surface Area Air Filter Annually about 470 million pounds non- biodegradable petro- leum-based pots (or 1.8 trillion individual pots) were purchased in the U.S. by greenhouses and nurseries in 2000. Masud S. Huda, Masud S. Huda, Horticultural Research Institute, 1000 Vermont Ave, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20005 Walter F. Schmidt, Walter F. Schmidt, USDA/ARS/EMBUL, Bldg. 07, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705 Marc Teffeau, Marc Teffeau, Horticultural Research Institute, 1000 Vermont Ave, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20005
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Biodegradable Pots
Our biodegradable pots use a state of the art composite made of agricultural residues mainly poultry feathers: □ 100 % natural □ Environmentally friendly □ Biodegradable and compostable □ Non-Hygienic □ Temperature resistant □ Contemporary design and finish □ Less energy-intensive process
Potential Benefits ∗ Increased value to poultry farmers
for feather byproducts ∗ New “green” industry created for
processing feathers and producing nursery pots.
∗ Decreased loads of used nursery pots to landfills.
∗ Consumer-friendly biodegradable pots which may be buried during planted or composted
∗ Horticulture industry benefits from customized nursery pots with differ-ent biodegradable half-lives
∗ Reduced dependence on petroleum products
Did you know? 1/3 lb. of a 5 pound chicken is feathers! More than 625 million broiler chickens
per year are produced on the Delmarva Peninsula
That’s 42 Million pounds of feathers! Nearly four billion pounds of chicken
feather waste generated by the U.S. poultry industry each year
Feathers can be considered one of the
most abundant materials in agricultural wastes
Improving product/process
sustainability and profitability Drs. Masud Huda and Walter Schmidt converted feather keratin into pellets using existing commercial polymer proc-essing equipment, and then use advanced analytical techniques including Raman Spectroscopy and Mechanical & Thermal Analysis equipments in evaluating and in optimizing formulation composition. In-venting horticultural nursery pots formu-lations which can be composted and con-tain no petroleum–based components made for the nursery and horticultural industry is part of a Cooperative Re-search and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Horticultural Re-search Institute.
Project Objective The main purpose of this project is to develop the enabling technology that I transforms poultry feathers into value-added products for biodegradable nursery pots manufacturing.
Background More than 2 billion pounds dry feathers are available annually in the U.S. from poultry production. Presently feather meal is by far the most common end product made from feathers. Feather is entirely composed of the structural protein Keratin. As a natural biopolymer, keratin is self-sustainable, continuously renewable and biodegradable,
Harvesting keratin to make value-added products in a useful commercially viable-form has proven successful at the pilot scale level. Proto-type product include:
high surface area filters, light weight insulation mats, strong light weight protein based con-struction materials, composite polymers and biodegradable agricultural weed control films.
BIODEGRADABLE NURSERY POTS FROM POULTRY FEATHERS
Why feather nursery pot?
Each spring gardeners plant seed-lings in soft plastic starter trays.
These trays are not recyclable because the chemical composition is not predictable and/or chemi-cally incompatible with each other.
Plastic cannot be cost-effectively cleaned for reuse and in land fills can easily last decades.
Current pots are made from petroleum products.
Keratin Feather Fibers
Clear Keratin Film
High Surface Area Air Filter
Annually about 470 million pounds non-biodegradable petro-leum-based pots (or 1.8 trillion individual pots) were purchased in the U.S. by greenhouses and nurseries in 2000.
Masud S. Huda, Masud S. Huda, Horticultural Research Institute, 1000 Vermont Ave, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20005 Walter F. Schmidt, Walter F. Schmidt, USDA/ARS/EMBUL, Bldg. 07, 10300 Baltimore Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705 Marc Teffeau, Marc Teffeau, Horticultural Research Institute, 1000 Vermont Ave, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20005
Related Documents
![PROPERTIES AND OPTIMAL MANUFACTURING CONDITIONS OF CHICKEN ... · Chicken feathers (CFs) are a material, constituted basically of keratin and other minoritary components [12]. Nowadays](https://static.cupdf.com/doc/110x72/606e28b1a91f5d2670380486/properties-and-optimal-manufacturing-conditions-of-chicken-chicken-feathers.jpg)
