Extraction of Keratin from Chicken Feathers and its Application in the Treatment of Contaminated Water: an Eco-Friendly Approach

Chicken feathers that make up 4-6% of total weight of chicken are most influential waste by-product from poultry farm and slaughter. Annual worldwide generation of several tons of feather biomass raise solid waste management concerns. In environmental perspective, the burning or dumping in landfills are not promising approaches. Keratin, tough and fibrous protein, is an important polymer abundant in chicken feathers. The present study aimed at extraction, characterization of keratin from chicken feather waste. Moreover, this study was performed to evaluate the adsorption potential of keratin adsorbent for the treatment of heavy metal contaminated synthetic water. Feathers after collection was treated with sodium sulfide for the extraction of valuable keratin protein. The extracted keratin was dialyzed using cellulose membrane and freeze dried. Adsorption of metals (Zn and Cu) onto extracted keratin has been studied using batchadsorption studies. The concentration of obtained protein from chicken feather was computed to be 0.95mg/mL. Functional groups of amide I, amide II, tryptophan, stretching C -O and bond of C -N were confirmed through FTIR. XRD analysis confirmed sem-crystalline structure of keratin whereas SEM analysis showed roughness on surface of keratin due to alkaline hydrolysis. Freundlich isotherm identified ideal parameters for removal of zinc and copper from water as eight hours of contact time, temperature of 25 0 C. With regard to pH, the optimum level was 5.0 and 4.5 for zinc and copper respectively. After treatment with extracted keratin, the removal of 52% zinc and 69% copper from the synthetic water was observed. Results clearly indicate the potential of keratin from chicken feather for effective, economic and eco-friendly treatment of contaminated water.