Converting Poultry Feather Waste into Bioplastics using Green Modifying Agents

Sammanfattning: Handling of problematic waste material, and the use of fossil-based and non-biodegradable plastics are two major sustainability challenges. By developing solutions that convert waste material to bioplastics, it is possible to address both these issues. Every year, large quantities of feathers from the poultry industry are either stored in landfills or disposed of by incineration. The company Bioextrax has developed an alternative, green approach that breaks down the feathers via microbial degradation, a process that generates keratin microfibers. During this project such microfibers have been used to synthesize a bioplastic film, using cheap and environmentally friendly reagents. Since the microfibers do not form a coherent material on their own, glycerol and citric acid have been added as modifying agents. This thesis documents the development of a process to generate thin films from said reagents, by forming a pre-polymerized resin of glycerol and citric acid, subsequently mixing it with microfibers, and pressing the mixture into a thin film using a flatiron. The result is a flexible thin film that is insoluble in water. Analysis using TGA, DSC and FTIR shows indications of a one-phase system and increased thermal stability contributed by the microfibers. While the microfibers mixed with the resin can be processed into thin films using a simple approach, the main drawback is that control films are extremely difficult to produce without incorporating microfibers. This leaves much room for future development, while this project can serve as a stepping stone for future work.