Sustainable use of waste chicken feather for durable and low cost building materials for tropical climates
Issue Date
1-2010
Abstract
Chicken feathers are waste products of the poultry industry. Billions of kilograms of waste feathers are generated each year by commercial poultry processing plants creating a serious solid waste problem in many countries. Traditional disposal strategies of chicken feathers are expensive and difficult. They are often burned in incineration plants, buried in landfills or recycled into low quality animal feed. These disposal methods are restricted, generate green house gases or pose danger to the environment. Several commercial applications have been explored to utilize fibers from chicken feathers. However, due to the low volume requirements of these products they had not significantly reduced the volume of feathers generated each year. An innovative way to utilize poultry feathers into a novel composite material is to bind them with Portland cement. Recent studies showed that cement bonded chicken feather composites (called featherboards) are suitable for non structural applications in low cost housing projects in developing countries. Tests showed that stiffness (MOE), flexural strength (MOR) and dimensional stability of featherboards were slightly lower or comparable to that of commercially available wood-fiber cement board in the market (HardieLite®, HardieFlex Philippines) of similar thickness and density. Cement bonded featherboards had excellent decay (Basidiomycetes) and termite (Coptotermes, Macrotermes, Microcerotermes, Nasutitermes spp) resistance which made them very attractive as construction materials in tropical climates. Despite the need for more research on the use of waste chicken feather as reinforcement in cement bonded composite, it offers an environmentally friendly method of disposing a serious waste product and promotes competitiveness of both the poultry and construction industries. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
Source or Periodical Title
Sustainable Agriculture: Technology, Planning and Management
Page
353-366
Document Type
Book Chapter
Physical Description
illustrations, tables, graphs
Language
English
Subject
Barbs, Cement composites, Chicken feather, Coupling agent, Dimensional stability, Featherboard, Hygroscopicity, Keratin, Silane, Superplasticizer
Recommended Citation
Acda, M.N. (2010). Sustainable use of waste chicken feather for durable and low cost building materials for tropical climates. Sustainable Agriculture: Technology, Planning and Management, 353-366.
Digital Copy
yes