Materials take wing: what to do with 4 billion pounds of feathers? - research on turning feathers into useful products

Science News, Feb 23, 2002 by Jessica Gorman

In pursuit of a new insulation material, Roy Broughton of Auburn University in Alabama has made nonwoven feather-fiber materials in a different way. Instead of spraying on latex after forming fiber sheets, Broughton mixes synthetic fibers with the feather material and then forms the combination into 2-to-4-inch-thick sheets. When he heats these sheets, the synthetic material partially melts and holds the feather fibers in place.

The resulting combination insulates well and holds its shape better than down does, he says. Broughton suggests that feather insulation could prove useful in comforters and even attics and walls. However, to his knowledge, no one has done flammability tests on the material.

Feather fibers might also find a use in water filters. Manoranjan Misra of the University of Nevada at Reno proposes that this application won't only help solve the waste-feather problem, but it might also produce better water filters than today's common filters, such as those made of activated carbon. The microstructure of feather fibers attracts and traps hard-to-remove contaminants such as uranium, which can threaten water sources in parts of the United States, and other heavy metals, he says.

Before putting the fiber in a filter, Misra "activates" it with ultrasound to open up additional microscopic pores in the fiber's structure, he says. He's constructed prototype feather-fiber water filters by packing the fibers into plastic columns. Tests so tar, he reports, indicate that the feather filters can remove contaminants from home drinking water or industrial waste. Like George, Misra discussed his work last November at the Materials Research Society meeting.

In laboratory experiments, Misra has found that feather fiber also readily absorbs nuclear byproducts such as radioactive strontium and cesium. He is consulting with Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee about using his feather-fiber materials to absorb, transport, and store nuclear waste in convenient, small packages, thereby having one waste substance clean up another.

Processed feather barbs could be useful in many more products. Featherfiber, for example, is sponsoring researchers who are creating and testing feather-plastic composites that may provide semirigid surfaces on the interiors of cars, trucks, and airplanes, says company founder David Emery. Other researchers are working on prototypes of a termite-proof material for replacing wood and insulation.

To demonstrate further possibilities, Schmidt and his USDA colleagues have made prototypes of many feather-fiber-containing products including paper, disposable diapers, and clothing. One benefit of making sheets of paper from feather fibers instead of wood fiber, Schmidt notes, is that no bleaching chemicals are needed. Chickens and turkeys have been bred to have white feathers.

The potential for such products' reducing the overabundance of waste feathers is obvious, says Schmidt. If just 15 percent of the diapers produced each year included feather batting, all the feathers from the U.S. poultry industry could be consumed, he notes. Those same feathers could otherwise be taken up if only 1 to 2 percent of paper were made from feathers instead of wood fiber.