The hydrolysis technology optimization for amino acids production from feather in sub-critical water

The hydrolysis of feather in sub-critical water to produce amino acids was conducted. The quality and quantity analysis of amino acids during hydrolysates were carried out by Amino Acid Analyzer (Biological Liquid Chromatography), and 16 kinds of amino acids were obtained. The effects of reaction temperature, time and pressure on the yield of amino acids were investigated. Based on these experimental results, the optimum parameters of the hydrolysis process was studied by the L9(34) orthogonal test with the yield of amino acids as the index and reaction temperature, time and pressure as the factors. The research results show that the sub-critical water hydrolysis process has the advantages of high efficiency, simple process and friendly to environment. The optimum hydrolysis conditions for amino acids production from feather in sub-critical water were found as follows: reaction pressure of (5.0 ± 0.5) MPa, temperature of 250C and reaction time of 30 min. Under these conditions, the yield of amino acids could reach up to 6.54%.