About the Project

Discover UNLOCK!

The European poultry sector generates 3.6 million tonnes of waste feathers each year, of which only around 25% are collected separately and valorised. In line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, UNLOCK proposes to valorise this waste stream and design a new economically and environmentally sustainable value chain.

The bio-based products created will be tailored to the needs of the agriculture sector, with the creation of seed trays, nonwoven geotextiles, mulch films and hydroponic foams through four different technical processes, depending on the type of end products desired.

And as feathers contain nearly 90% keratin, the innovative materials arising from this new value chain will present additional advantages at the end of the product’s life: keratin-based materials are targeted to be zero waste and allow for controlled biodegradability, while also enriching soils with organic nitrogen.

How will the project unlock the potential of feathers?

Design smart regional value chains

Separate collection, storage and transport of feathers remain hurdles to be solved.

UNLOCK will provide a comprehensive snapshot of the existing poultry feather value chains, measuring its technical, economic and financial feasibility, and proposing optimised logistics strategies.

Microbial degradation can already occur after 6 hours, if feathers are not stored under chilled conditions.

Optimise feather conversion technologies

The effect of treatments conditions on the final properties of keratin-based products needs to be further investigated.

UNLOCK will conduct analyses to improve the efficiency of the following four conversion treatments, used for different end-applications:

Treatment conditions such as time or temperature have an impact on the products' biodegradability.

Develop end products for agricultural applications

Plastics used in agriculture are not sufficiently recycled due to contamination at use phase, and so far biodegradable alternatives are not widely used.

To replace fossil-based products, UNLOCK will demonstrate the production of sustainable keratin-based end-products with tailored biodegradability properties at the end-of-life:

7 million tonnes

Plastics used in agriculture each year – 2% of global plastic production

Utilise eco-design to close nutrient and carbon cycles

Unprocessed feather waste contains high quantities of microorganisms. When landfilled those represent a considerable risk of environmental pollution to the different environmental compartments including surface and groundwater, air and soil. Biodiversity can be affected.

But after valorisation, keratin-based products offer additional environmental benefits.

UNLOCK’s end products will present the following advantages:

Tailor-made biodegradation. Biodegradability will be adjusted to the crops’ duration, resulting in zero waste generation at the end of the product life – thus reducing the negative carbon footprint.
Soil enrichment. The products will gradually release organic nitrogen to the soil, with a desired fertilizing effect.

Feathers contain nearly 90% keratin, a valuable protein.

Study economic, social and environmental feasibility

The sustainability of a feather-based bioeconomy needs to be confirmed in real-life conditions.

UNLOCK will carry out an environmental and socio-economic assessment following a Cycle Thinking approach: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for environmental impacts, Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) for social impacts, and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) for economic impact.