Nevada studies feather meal for waste-based biodiesel

checkbiotech.org
Thursday, July 9, 2009
By Susanne Retka Schill

Feather biodiesel is the latest work of the researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno—the same team whose work with coffee biodiesel gave them a moment of fame—who recently published a paper on extract useable oils from another waste material—feather meal.

Currently, feather meal left after poultry processing is used as an animal feed, given its high protein content, and also as a fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content. The fat content varies from 2 percent to 12 percent depending on the type of feathers, with chicken feathers containing approximately 11 percent oil content while turkey and duck features contain about 7 percent oil. Removing the fat from the meal would provide a new coproduct and boost the value of the feed and fertilizer coproducts.

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