Did you know that feathers make up 5% of a chicken’s weight? What to do with tons of chicken feathers left over on farms every day? The good news is a startup is revolutionizing this industry by transforming chicken feathers into thermal insulation.
Elena Dieckmann, co-founder of Aeropowder, was intrigued with keratin, a naturally abundant protein, and sought ways to exploit its properties. Keratin is light, insulating, water repellent and biodegradable. She thought of using human hair, but then realized that the feathers were more plentiful. In the UK alone there are 100 tonnes per week.
Most insulation materials are synthetic and derived from petroleum. The feathers of 80 chickens are sufficient to produce 10 square meters of insulation.
The startup won several awards, which gave financial resources for the partners to continue improving the product. The patent is still pending, but they continue to develop other products as a water repellent powder coating that could be applied to a variety of materials and also other lightweight composites, all with processed feathers.
The leftovers’ economy is an growing segmentt. There is no more trash, there are only raw material that we still do not know how to use and the feathers are a good example of this.
In 2022:
Aeropowder has grown and expanded its product range. They created Pluumo, its brand of thermal packaging made from feathers, an alternative to styrofoam packaging:
Upcycling of chicken feathers into thermal insulation for packaging
According to the company, Pluumo outperforms other insulation materials such as styrofoam, keeping deliveries refrigerated for longer. In addition, it absorbs the shocks and knocks that occur during delivery, helping the items to arrive in one piece.
PS: Article originally written on 06/17/2017 and published here on 08/16/2022.
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