Characterization of potential liquid fertilizers obtained by hydrothermal treatment of chicken feathers

Abstract

Bio-based fertilizers are currently gaining interest as a method for reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and as a means for safe disposal of biomass waste. Feathers, which are an abundantly available biomass and have a high N content, are a potential source of fertilizer nutrients. In this study, chicken feathers were subjected to hydrothermal treatment (HTT) with lime addition in the temperature range of 140-2008C to obtain a high N containing liquid product that can be used as a liquid fertilizer. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of HTT conditions on the feather solubilization rate and the properties of the liquid products. The results showed that HTT with a reaction temperature of 1808C, a reaction time of 30 min, feather-water ratio of 1:5, and lime addition is sufficient to solubilize as high as 83% of the chicken feather protein. The produced liquid contained nitrogen of up to 3.4% and total amino acid content of 13.6%. These results indicate the potential utilization of soluble hydrolyzed feather obtained from the HTT process for liquid N fertilizer.

Analysis and Characterization of Solid and Liquid Organic Fertilizer from Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) of Chicken Feather and Blood Waste

“…The aromatic structure was present in a solid aggregate of hydrolysate strengthened by a new band at 872 cm -1 attributed to the vibration of CH aromatic. Both of these The aromatization was also present in the previous study [15][16][17][18]. Polyaromatic structure in solid aggregate of hydrolysate plays a role in bonding some nutrients such as nitrogen and sulfur in the soil.…”

“…The band at 2515 cm -1 was associated with the thiol group (-SH), which is appeared due to the hydrolysis process of a disulfide bond (S-S) from keratin. The formation of a thiol group (-SH) indicated the loss of undegradable character in chicken feathers [16]. Thiol group (-SH) was associated with cysteine adsorbed in polyaromatic structure in solid organic fertilizer.…”

“…Nitrogen and sulfur percentage increased in the solid phase from 3:1 to 1:3 ratio, while decreased in the liquid phase from 3:1 to 1:3 ratio. Nitrogen and sulfur in the liquid phase indicated the hydrolysis of protein in chickens' feathers and blood into soluble amino acids [16]. The iron (Fe) contents of a solid organic fertilizer and liquid organic fertilizer are given in Table 1.…”

Fertilizer potential of liquid product from hydrothermal treatment of swine manure

“…Idowu et al (2017) also mentioned the fertilizer potential of process water from food waste after hydrothermal process. Restated, although previous research works have pointed out the fertilizer potential of liquid product from sludge, chicken feathers and empty fruit bunch by using HTT (Gollakota et al, 2018;Sun et al, 2014;Nurdiawati et al, 2015;Nurdiawati et al, 2018), the said liquid fertilizer potential has rarely been explored. In addition, limited information could be found on the feasibility of liquid fertilizer production from manure waste by using HTT, let alone the nutrients variation of treated manure at lower temperature than 200°C.…”

Production, Purification and Characterisation of Keratinases From Bacillus species Isolated From Poultry Feather Waste

“…World-wide poultry processing plants produce millions of tons of feathers as a waste product annually which consists of approximately 90% keratin; the keratin is largely responsible for their high degree of recalcitrance [7], this abundantly available biomass is rich in nitrogen content and is a potential source of fertilizer nutrients [8].…”