Nothing is waste in poultry industry even the poultry litter, feathers can also be turned into assets. Very useful, durable, cost-effective and sustainable products are produced from such 'wastes' from poultry industry.
Poultry recycling has opened up a new world of producing green products using poultry wates. In this article we will discuss on some of those innovations. But before that lets know in brief about the poultry recycling in Bangladesh.
Number of Bangladeshi companies have installed poultry recycling plants adjacent to their farms. They are producing bio-gas using litter. Electricity is being generated From bio-gas, which is meeting a partial demand of their farms. Bio-fertilizer is also another byproduct from poultry litter.
In Bangladesh we are only getting bio-gas, electricity and bio-fertilizer from poultry recycling but in different other countries several other products are being produced. According to the Alternative Energy (AE) News, every year 11 billion pounds of poultry industry waste accumulates annually in USA. Mostly they are utilized as low-grade animal feed. According to another statistic around two million tons chicken feather is being produced every year in the global poultry industry. Some even claim that the quantity is around 5 million tons.
Egg decorating is the art or craft of decorating eggs. It is quite a popular art/craft form because of the attractive, smooth, oval shape of the egg. Decorated and Crafted eggs have become a symbol of aristocracy.
Egg decorating has been around for centuries, and many of those early techniques and traditions are continued today by folk artist around the world. Pysanky, a wax resist method, uses geometric, plant, animal motifs and color to tell a story.
Another form of decorating was inspired by Carl Fabergè, a Russian goldsmith who was commissioned by the Czar to make surprise Easter gifts for his family members. While Fabergè used only the egg shape in his beautiful creations, many talented artist today decorate real egg shells in the style he began.
The advent of the drill or saw run by compressed air has resulted in many fanciful creations leaving very little of the original shell remaining.
Poultry by-product meal (PBM) is a high-protein product used as a major component in some pet foods. It is made from grinding clean, rendered parts of poultry carcasses and can contain bones, offal and undeveloped eggs.
There has been increased interest in using poultry litter as fertilizer since fertilizer prices have skyrocketed. Poultry litter has long been used near the point of production, but high transportation costs for its low analysis has limited its use to within about 50 miles of poultry houses. The ultra-high fertilizer prices of 2007 and 2008 have increased the geographical range within which it can be profitably used.
Some may be unfamiliar with what poultry litter is. It is poultry manure mixed with the bedding (wood shavings, rice hulls, etc.) that is scooped up when the houses are cleaned. The nutrient content of the litter can vary tremendously depending on the house clean-out technique, storage methods of the litter and other factors. We recommend testing the litter for nutrient content.
Without testing, we use an average nutrient percentage content of 3-3-2. This means an average ton of poultry litter contains 60 pounds of nitrogen, 60 pounds of phosphate (P2O5) and 40 pounds of potash (K2O) per ton of litter. Poultry litter also contains some amounts of all the other essential elements for plant growth, but the amounts are usually small. It is also a source of organic matter for the soil. If the litter has not been composted (most is not), there may be some small-seeded weeds, like pigweed, in the litter.
Since most of the elements contained in poultry litter are in the organic form, they are not all available the first year. Also, some of the nitrogen will be lost as a gas if the litter is not incorporated. As a general rule, assume that about 75 percent of the P and K will be available the first year and the remainder will become available the next year. That means that about 45 pounds of phosphate and 30 pounds of potash will be available the first year the litter is applied.
If the litter is surface-applied and not incorporated into the soil, about 25 percent of the nitrogen in the litter will be lost. Of the remainder, about 75 percent will be available the first year. So, if litter is applied to the soil surface and not incorporated into the soil, you will probably get about 30-35 pounds of nitrogen per ton of litter the first year.
Poultry litter can be applied at any time of the year, but, like all fertilizers, it is best to apply near the time of crop uptake. This means in the spring for summer pastures and in the early fall for winter pastures.
To avoid pollution of surface waters, do not apply poultry litter near ponds, creeks or rivers. Avoid application to very steep soils where it will wash away, and do not apply to frozen soils since it will move down the slope if rainfall occurs.
Most of the cost of poultry litter is in transportation and application. The closer you are to the source, the cheaper the product will be.
Chicken feather meal is processed at high temperatures with steam. This feather meal is used as animal feed and also as fertilizer. Chicken feather meal has high percentage of protein and nitrogen. The researchers have paid attention to the 12% fat content of the chicken feather meal. They have arrived at the conclusion that feather meal has potential as an alternative, non-food feedstock for the production of biofuel. They have extracted fat from chicken feather meal using boiling water and processing it into biodiesel. Another advantage of extracting fat from feather meal is it provides both a higher-grade animal feed and a better nitrogen source for fertilizer applications.
Researchers of Nevada University have estimated that around 153 million gallons of biodiesel annually in the U.S. and 593 million gallons worldwide can be produced from feather meal.
Chicken feather meal contains stronger and more absorbent keratin fiber than wood. Professor Richard P. Wool of the chemical engineering department of the University of Delaware, is trying to carbonized chicken feathers. This type of chicken feather bears a resemblance to highly versatile (and tiny) carbon nanotubes. This chicken feather can be utilized to store hydrogen for fuel-cell vehicles. If we visualize carefully we can see that very tiny natural sponges of chicken feathers have a big weight advantage over metal hydride storage.
Researchers all around the world are trying to produce different higher value added products with the waste feather. Their main focus is in three major areas:
1) Preparation of composite fiber board insulating panels for green buildings,
2) Preparation of functional keratin composite films with antimicrobial properties and
3) Development and application of waste-to-energy process using combustion.
These three possibilities were chosen owing to different technology and innovation level and completely different application fields: civil engineering (green architecture), new functional biopolymer products and alternative waste management and energy sources. Fiberboard insulating panels have relatively low added value, but high potential for wider use, especially in the light of energy efficiency in green buildings and its importance for combating climate change.
Keratin composite films, on the other hand, have very high added value and have very high potential for use in food packaging industry and/or in medical devices, but they are also technologically most demanding.
The combustion is an environmentally safe alternative to all other solutions of this type of waste handling. It enables the energy recovery of this material of organic origin and utilization of well needed energy direct at the source of material with no logistics and with no carbon footprint. By combustion of this material the production of steam, hot water or hot thermal oil is possible depending on the needs and present infrastructure at the locations of waste feathers production. Owing to the fact that such a huge annual amount of feather wastes could hardly be successfully converted into only one sort of higher added value products, the technically, environmentally and economically most viable option is to apply a mixture of these three options.