Production of Biodiesel from Feather Meal Made of Chicken Parts

As if chicken weren’t doing enough already for our subsistence, scientists from Nevada have developed a new and environmentally-friendly process for production of biodiesel from ‘chicken feather meal’.

What’s chicken feather meal?

Never heard of it? No worries. Unless you’re a poultry farmer, chances are you haven’t heard of it before.

Chicken feather meal consists of processed chicken feathers, blood and innards, processed at high temperatures with steam. Currently it is used as animal feed and fertilizer due to its high protein and nitrogen content.

However, with as much as 12% fat content, feather meal has the potential to be an alternative for the production of biofuel.

How?

Fat can be extracted from chicken feather meal using boiling water and then processed into biodiesel.

How much?

Given the amount of feather meal generated by the poultry industry every year, scientists estimate this process could create 153 million gallons of biodiesel annually in the U.S. and 593 million gallons worldwide. Pretty neat huh?

Any other advantage?

Removal of fat from feather meal results in both a higher-grade animal feed and a better nitrogen source for fertilizer applications.

via: EurekAlert!