During the KaRMA2020 project, the feather waste stream generated at the poultry slaughterhouse has been valorized using different technologies adapted to the final applications. The consortium has solved some of the key issues associated to the handling and treatment of feathers to be used as a valuable raw material. Some of the major achievements made are the creation of a range of raw materials derived from feathers, such as: keratin hydrolysate, bioplastics, flame retardants, thermoset resins and non-woven fabrics. As part of the project, humins, a by-product of sugars dehydration process, has also been incorporated into the value chain.
The initial lab-scale experiments have been substituted by pilot and industrial demonstrations, end-products validation and feasibility studies to ensure the roll out of the innovative technologies. The potential of conversion technologies for feathers treatment have been evaluated in terms of feasibility, scalability and cost competitiveness. This assessment allowed the selection of the most suitable technologies for the industrial manufacturing of feather based raw materials. The upscaling of the different conversion technologies has been accomplished combining simulation software tools with pilot trials to produce feather-based raw materials by technologies such as: steam explosion, melt extrusion, spun-bonded and chemical conversion.
As a result, five different feather-based products have been manufactured and validated according to the same standards than their petroleum-based counterparts: food packaging trays, fertilisers (including control release fertilisers, CRFs), Flame retardants (FR) for PU coated textiles, FR paints and thermoset composites. In terms of performance, most of them fulfilled more than the 90% of the requirements of the application and, in some cases, the new product performed even better.
KaRMA2020 end-products could replace, in some applications, fossil-derived materials. Depending on the end-product, the reduction in the use of fossil sources range from 30 to 100%. These KaRMA2020 products could guarantee in the future their bio-based content through the corresponding certification “OK BIO-BASED”.
Besides these new developments, the environmental impact of the technologies, processes and materials of the project have been evaluated to ensure their lower carbon footprint. Together with this assessment, KaRMA2020 has developed an integrated waste management strategy which covers the waste generation along the whole value chain of the project and the potential valorisation routes.
Visual identity and communication materials (brochure, leaflet, website…) were created as part of the communication strategy and 10 publications related to KaRMA2020 results have been disseminated. On the other hand, as part of the business plan, a deep market analysis accomplished in the project and the most suitable exploitation routes for KaRMA2020 innovations were proposed.
Finally, in recognition of the innovations of the project, KaRMA2020 received several awards such as the SPIRE “2017-EU Process Industry Conference” as the more inSPIRE-ing project”, and it also won the Gold Medal with a Special Jury Mention and Special award from the Joint Stock Company Design & Research Institute for Information Technology, Signaling and Telecommunication on Railway Transport JSC NIIAS, Russia for the invention “Hydrophobic feathers based nonwovens obtained by spun-bonded technique” and Gold Medal of the INNOVA Fair 2019.
