Car Parts from Chicken Feathers

April 26, 2000

Chicken feathers will be used to make filters, diapers, clothing, paper, absorbent pads and wipes, insulation and upholstery padding at a plant in Missouri. The technique for making such items from feathers was developed by USDA Agricultural Research Service chemist Walter F. Schmidt.

The technique involves sanitizing the fibers, then removing them from feather quills. The protein fibers are as strong as nylon and finer and stronger than wood pulp. That gives feather products superior filtration, absorbency and durability.

Unlike wood pulp, the feather pulp doesn’t require bleaching because commercial chickens are bred for white color. Both the feather fibers and the quills also can replace some of the plastic or fiberglass in products such as automobile dashboards, door panels, ceiling lining and other internal molded parts.

Featherfiber Corporation has taken over a poultry processing plant in Southwest Missouri that closed. The company is refurbishing the plant, but before conversion, company President David R. Emery contracted with a Michigan firm to make test runs of 8-inch by 10-inch sample materials, using Featherfiber which eventually will be used to make a host of items.

Two other firms, Tysone Foods of Springdale, AR, and Maxim Industries of Altadena, CA, also share rights to the USDA-patented technique to turn feathers into fiber that can be mixed with natural and synthetic fibers to form new products and enhance the performance of existing fiber products.