Using chicken feathers to produce clean energy

Researchers use waste chicken feathers to create keratin membranes useful for hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysis.

Waste chicken feathers could help produce clean energy. Photo: Adobe Stock — Waste chicken feathers could help produce clean energy. Photo: *Adobe Stock*

Hydrogen is a promising clean energy. Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity using semi-permeable membranes. However, these membranes are often made with expensive, environmentally unfriendly, toxic, and potentially carcinogenic “forever chemicals.”

A team of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore has found a new way to produce these membranes, Interesting Engineering reported on October 21. They extracted the keratin protein from chicken feather waste and turned it into microscopic fibers called amyloid using an environmentally friendly process. These microscopic keratin fibers were then used for fuel cell membranes.

Every year, about 40 million tons of chicken feathers are burned. This process not only generates huge amounts of CO2 emissions but also produces toxic gases such as SO2. Using chicken feathers to produce hydrogen energy would be an effective way to deal with waste from the poultry industry.

However, there are still challenges to overcome before hydrogen becomes a stable sustainable energy source. “Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but unfortunately this is not the case on Earth,” says Raffaele Mezzenga, professor of Food and Soft Materials at ETH Zurich. Here, hydrogen does not exist in its pure form, so it has to go through a process that is energy-intensive.

The new membrane is promising not only for use in fuel cells, but also in electrolysis (the process of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity). In this process, a direct current is passed through water, causing oxygen to form at the positively charged anode, while hydrogen is released at the negatively charged cathode. Pure water is not conductive enough and usually requires the addition of acid. However, the new membrane is permeable to protons, allowing particles to move between the anode and cathode, making electrolysis effective even in pure water.

Next, the team will test the stability and durability of the new keratin membrane and make improvements if necessary. They have filed a patent application and are looking for investors or companies to help further develop the technology and commercialize it.

Thu Thao (According to Interesting Engineering )

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