Future Fabrics Made of Chicken Feathers

Sept. 29, 2006 — Some may eat chicken and rice for dinner, but in a lab at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, chicken feathers and rice straw are being turned into fabric fibers that resemble wool, linen and cotton.

The textiles may help reduce not only agricultural waste but also our reliance on petroleum-based synthetic fabrics.

"Fifty percent of all fibers are from petroleum, and we have an oil issue," said Yiqi Yang, a professor of textile science at the university, who is collaborating on the research with Narendra Reddy, a doctoral candidate at the school.

Yang and his colleagues think that agricultural waste could offer an alternative source.

Rice straw is made up of the bits and stems leftover after a rice harvest and, like cotton and flax, is composed mostly of cellulose. It now accounts for 580 million tons of waste worldwide.

In the United States, chicken feathers, which are composed of keratin, like wool, make up about 4 billion pounds in waste each year. Much of this material ends up in landfills.

According to Yang, even processing a small fraction of this agricultural waste and turning it into textiles could have a significant impact on world demand, which totals almost 70 million tons of fibers per year.

Yang's team has already done significant research on developing fibers from rice straw.

"He's a leader in this kind of research," said Jonathan Chen, associate professor at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Just like cotton, the rice straw is harvested, baled, shipped to a plant and broken down into tiny pieces. The straw is treated with a combination of chemicals, heat and enzymes, and washed repeatedly.

The process breaks down the straw, separating the cellulose fibers from other natural materials such as hemicellulose, a carbohydrate, silica, a hard mineral substance, and lignin, a polymer that hardens and strengthens the cell walls of plants.

The process of then extracting the fibers is under patent review and so Yang is reluctant to describe it in too much detail. However, he said that it is not complicated or expensive.

In fact, Yang estimates that the total production cost of the fiber will be about 50 cents per pound. Cotton sells at about 60 cents per pound, linen for about $1 a pound.

"The number one challenge is the cost-effectiveness for utilizing these kinds of waste materials," said Chen. "If you can compete with current available products, you will have a chance."

Research for processing fibers from the chicken feathers is not as advanced as the rice straw. So far, Yang and his team have characterized the fiber properties to determine the best applications.

They have focused on the thin, filamentous parts that form the fluffier parts of the feather. These parts have microscopic air pockets interlaced within a honeycomb architecture. Those properties could offer fibers that are lightweight, good insulators and impact-cushioning.

The biggest hurdle may be getting the textile industry to accept chicken and rice fibers. Yang expects the driving force to come from the apparel industry, where people are always on the look for durable, inexpensive, natural textiles.