Tensile strain @max load (%) Tensile stress @max load (MPa) Fig. 8. The dimensional measurements of chicken feather barbs and rachis Fig. 8. The dimensional measurements of chicken feather barbs and rachis Valorisation of chicken feathers waste: Characterization of chicken feathers Tamrat Tesfaye1 Bruce Sithole1, 2 and Deresh Ramjugernath1 1Discipline of Chemical Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa 2Forestry and Forest Products Research Centre, CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment, Durban, South Africa E-mail: bsithole@csir.co.za – www.csir.co.za 1. Introduction Worldwide, the poultry–processing industry generates large quantities of feather by-products that amount to 40 billion kilograms annually. Economic pressures, environmental pressures, increasing interest in using renewable and sustainable raw materials, and the need to decrease reliance on non-renewable petroleum resources behove the industry to find better ways of dealing with waste feathers. Fig. 7. Proximate analysis of chicken feather Fig. 8. Ultimate analysis of chicken feather Utilisation of feathers: Present scenario 2.3 Thermal properties Fig. 9. FTIR spectra of chicken feather Fig. 10. XRD of chicken feather What to do with the more than 20 billion pounds of poultry feather waste generated each year?   2. Characterization of Chicken feathers 2.1 Physical properties of chicken feathers Table 1. Fibre length distribution of chicken feather fractions Table 2. Diameter of chicken feather barbules, barb and rachis Table 3. Dimensions of chicken feather fractions Fig. 1. The dimensional measurements of chicken feather Fig. 2. Density of chicken feather Fig. 3. Morphological structures of chicken feathers   Barbules Barb Rachis Mean 4.92 µm 46.65 µm 2.26 mm SD 1.73 µm 34.37 µm 1.17 mm Cv 35.12 % 73.66 % 51.65 % Barbules Barb Rachis Mean 398.00 μm 24.75 mm 92.13 mm SD 154.58 μm 19.14 mm 55.28 mm Median 379.79 μm 25.31 mm 124.85 mm Cv 38.84% 77.31% 60.01% 2.4 Mechanical properties Fig. 11. TGA/DSC of chicken feather Table 5. Mechanical properties of chicken feather Part of feather Slenderness ratio Flexibility ratio Barbs 530.55 57.62 Rachis 40.77 0.58 Part of feather Max load (cN) Tenacity @max load (cN/Tex) Tensile extension @max load (mm) Tensile strain @max load (%) Tensile stress @max load (MPa) Barbs 1000.77 12.40 0.67 6744.38 1.00 Rachis 12930.00 -- 3.79 4.73 1.65 3. Conclusions The cost of the poultry processing industry to dispose of their feather waste becomes higher due to reduced availability of landfill space. Chemical constituents, their cheapness (free availability) and ease of availability makes economical and environmental sense to maximize the use of chicken feather in the future.   Utilisation of feathers: Future prospects 2.2 Chemical properties Table 4. Burning characteristics of chicken feather fraction Fig. 5. Chemical resistance of chicken feather fractions Fig. 6. The swelling property of chicken feather Chemical properties Barbs/Rachis/Whole feather Approaching flame Smoulders and curls away from flame; ignites slowly In the flame Burns slowly /orange flame; sizzles and curls, no smoke Away from the flame Supports combustion with difficulty for short time Odour Burning rubber Residue Easy crushable black soft ash Fig. 4. Elemental analysis of chicken feathers Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank thermodynamics research group/UKZN for the bursary and FFP/CSiR for arranging the lab facilities.