A green process for producing biodiesel from feather meal.
This paper describes a new and environmentally friendly process for developing biodiesel from commercial feather meal, a waste product of the poultry industry. Currently, feather meal is used as an animal feed, given its high protein content, and also as a fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content. In this work, we have extracted fat from the feather meal in boiling water (70 degrees C) and then transesterified the fat into biodiesel using KOH and methanol; 7-11% biodiesel (on a dry basis) is produced in this process. ASTM analysis of the prepared feather meal biodiesel confirmed that the biodiesel is of good quality and comparable to other biodiesels made from other common feedstocks. Given the amount of feather meal produced by the poultry industry, it is estimated that this process can create 150-200 million gallons of biodiesel in the United States and 593.2 million gallons worldwide.
Kondamudi
Narasimharao
N
Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada, 1664 North Virginia, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA.
Strull
Jason
J
Misra
Mano
M
Mohapatra
Susanta K
SK
D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D004951:Esterification; D005223:Fats / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis; D005241:Feathers / Q000737:chemistry*; D005511:Food Handling; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis*
D005223:Fats; D005227:Fatty Acids; D007220:Industrial Waste