Outside the box… How can chicken feathers reshape the adhesives industry?

Out of the box… How can chicken feathers reshape the adhesives industry?

The manufacture of adhesives depends mainly onfossil raw materials, but researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interface Engineering and Biotechnology in Germany; Recently, with an outside-the-box idea, they were able to develop a new manufacturing process for adhesives using keratin. Keratin is a type of versatile protein, and it can be obtained from many biological sources, such as chicken feathers for example.

The new process for manufacturing various adhesives opens the way to transforming this industry into sustainability, as these products can be adapted into a large number of applications, which achieves many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in addition to adopting the basic principles of the circular economy, and reshaping the future of this industry, which represents tens of billions of dollars from the global economy.

Keratin and adhesives

We find adhesives almost everywhere around us, in sports shoes, smartphones, floor and wall covering materials, furniture, textiles, packaging materials, and much more, with industry experts indicating that there are more than 1,000 different types of adhesives used in all different applications.

Adhesive materials have a number of characteristics, compared to other fastening solutions such as nails. They are lightweight, distribute the load evenly, do not rust and prevent moisture. In addition to their low cost and ease of use, they also carry a significant environmental footprint. Due to its reliance – mainly – on fossil sources, in addition to the energy consumption during its manufacturing stages.

Normally, most commercial adhesives are made from fossil raw materials, but Fraunhofer researchers have found a new method that allows them to use chicken feathers, as a source of the basic raw material, rather than fossil resources. As we know, feathers are a by-product of the poultry industry, and are discarded or mixed into animal feed, but they contain an important compound, which is keratin. Keratin is found in animals – in general – where it forms parts such as claws, hooves, and feathers. Due to the extremely strong structural structure of this vital protein.

But, what makes keratin an ideal material for use in making adhesives? Keratin is a biodegradable material; Therefore, it is environmentally friendly, and its structure has characteristics that make it particularly suitable for the manufacture of adhesives. Keratin is essentially a polymer, consisting of very long chains. In addition, it can undergo cross-linking reactions necessary for the manufacture of various adhesives. This means that the keratin found in bio-based sources only needs to be extracted and processed to obtain the desired products.

Production of chemicals from chicken feathers

Over the past three years, the Fraunhofer Institute has collaborated with a number of leading adhesive manufacturers in a specialized project to produce chemicals from keratin. This cooperation has succeeded in arriving at a process for producing the basic chemicals needed to manufacture adhesives, using chicken feathers.

The first stage in the process begins with supplying feather waste from slaughterhouses and farms, to then be sterilized, washed, and then cut mechanically. Enzymes are then used to break the long keratin polymer chains into shorter chains, through the process of hydrolysis. At the end of the process, we obtain the final product, which is a chemical substance that can represent the basic input in the manufacture of adhesives.

The director responsible for the project, Dr. Michael Richter, said: “The experiments we are currently conducting aim to incorporate a set of biologically improved properties into the properties of the final product. To open the way for various applications, as we need to produce various adhesives in elasticity, thermal properties, and strength, and we also need to find the best way to facilitate and accelerate the production process. In addition, we are researching the possibility of using keratin extracted from biological sources in other industries such as paint.”

In the next phase of the project, Fraunhofer’s team set out to scale up pilot production runs, to prove that the chemicals resulting from keratin processing could be manufactured cost-effectively on a commercial scale. To investigate this matter, the team processed several kilograms of chicken feathers, and used the produced material in raw materials experiments. To produce adhesives in a number of leading companies in this field, such as Henkel.

A Vibrant Circular Economy

This innovative method of producing adhesives from biological sources is of particular importance, not only because it uses biodegradable materials in production processes, instead of relying on fossil sources; Rather, it is due to its ability to use waste as a basic raw material, which represents the spirit of the circular economy.

It is worth noting that this promising method carries potential economic weight, at least for Germany. Because it is home to a number of adhesives factories, whose production reaches about one million tons annually, with a total value of 1.87 billion euros. Therefore, Germany can represent the starting point for this innovative technology, to be used in various countries around the world.

This promising new method for producing adhesives can achieve a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), most notably the ninth goal: industry, innovation and infrastructure, and the twelfth goal: responsible production and consumption, in addition to its adoption of a circular economy.

Such out-of-the-box ideas, which seek to find out-of-the-box solutions to our climate problems, are a source of inspiration for all of us, which is whatDefenders of the Earth magazine aims to publish and highlight through the “Out of the Box” series of articles.