Examining the value of chicken feathers for clean energy

Hopes are growing that chicken feathers could be used to fight climate change and produce clean electricity. Until recently, most of the 40 million tonnes of chicken feathers produced annually across the globe have been incinerated or dumped with other waste material that hinder their biodegradability by soil microorganisms. These methods are energy intensive and also lead to the loss of the valuable protein keratin that forms 90% of chicken feathers. But now, researchers have found they can