{"id":93991,"date":"2021-08-19T07:08:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T05:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=93991"},"modified":"2021-08-16T15:08:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T13:08:49","slug":"a-european-project-will-unlock-the-potential-of-feathers-to-foster-circularity-in-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/a-european-project-will-unlock-the-potential-of-feathers-to-foster-circularity-in-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"A European Project will unlock the potential of feathers to foster circularity in agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p><strong>The European poultry sector generates 3.6 million tonnes of\u00a0waste feathers\u00a0each year, of which only around 25% are collected separately and\u00a0valorised\u00a0for feather meal and fertiliser applications. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cIn line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the UNLOCK project will valorise chicken feathers to manufacture high value-added, bio-based products for\u00a0agricultural applications. Our solution will reduce this waste generated by the poultry sector while also substituting fossil-based materials currently used in\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aimplas.net\/sector-agriculture\/\" target=\"_blank\">agriculture<\/a>\u00a0by renewable ones\u201d <\/p><cite>highlights Sarah Montes from CIDETEC Foundation, coordinator of UNLOCK.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>In the course of the four-year project, funded by the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), UNLOCK\u2019s partners will design economically and environmentally\u00a0sustainable innovative value chains\u00a0to create a\u00a0feather-based bioeconomy. Four different processes will valorise the feathers: from mechanical treatment to the steam explosion, microbial fermentation or chemical hydrolysis, depending on the type of end products desired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bio-based products generated will be tailored to the needs of the agriculture sector, with the creation of seed trays, nonwoven geotextiles, mulch films and hydroponic foams. Furthermore, the keratin contained in those innovative materials will bring additional\u00a0environmental benefits\u00a0at the end of the product\u2019s life: keratin-based materials are targeted to be zero waste and allow for controlled biodegradability, while also enriching soils with organic nitrogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To start working on this challenging but promising initiative, the 15 European partners held an online kick-off meeting on 28 April. This made clear the strength of UNLOCK\u2019s well-balanced consortium, which covers the whole value-chain, from feedstock and supply chain analysis to equipment, processes, end-product fabrication and sustainability assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The journey to transform traditional poultry systems into circular, sustainable ones may just have started, but by the end of the project, two first-of-a-kind commercial biorefineries will be established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Building on the success of the KaRMA2020 project, UNLOCK aims to make further strides toward a more sustainable European agricultural sector.You can follow the progress of UNLOCK on Twitter @UNLOCK_BBI and on LinkedIn UNLOCK_project. More details on the project\u2019s objectives and achievements will soon be available at www.unlock-project.eu<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The consortium<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The consortium is composed of 4 Research and Technology Organisations (CIDETEC Foundation (ES) \u2013 coordinator of the project, \u0141UKASIEWICZ Research Network-Institute of Biopolymers and Chemical Fibres (PL), Asociaci\u00f3n de Investigaci\u00f3n de Materiales Pl\u00e1sticos (ES), RISE Processum AB (SE)), 8 SMEs (General Hydroponic Europe (FR), Bioextrax AB (SE), Bio-Mi dru\u0161tvo sa ograni\u010denom odgovorno\u010du (HR), TECHNOPackaging (ES), FARRELLY &amp; MITCHELL (IE), Organic Waste Systems nv (BE), INKOA SISTEMAS (ES), Associaci\u00f3 Comarcal Urgell d\u2019Ajuda al Minusv\u00e0lid (ES)), 2 Clusters (Fundacja UNIMOS (PL), Greenovate! Europe EEIG (BE)), and 1 large industry (CEDROB S.A. (PL)).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>European funding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;UNLOCK&nbsp;project has received funding of \u20ac5&nbsp;million from the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement n\u00ba&nbsp;101023306.&nbsp;It officially started&nbsp;on 1&nbsp;May&nbsp;2021 and will run until April&nbsp;2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European poultry sector generates 3.6 million tonnes of\u00a0waste feathers\u00a0each year, of which only around 25% are collected separately and\u00a0valorised\u00a0for feather meal and fertiliser applications. \u201cIn line with the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the UNLOCK project will valorise chicken feathers to manufacture high value-added, bio-based products for\u00a0agricultural applications. Our solution will reduce this waste generated by [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"A new European funded collaborative project, UNLOCK, was launched on 1 May to generate new value from a waste stream that contains nearly 90 % keratin, a valuable protein that can be a source for biodegradable materials.","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[6630,16380,10503,5838,10416,18878],"supplier":[11215,18918,18914,18913,18921,13475,18916,18919,18912,18920,18917,18911,3877,18915],"class_list":["post-93991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-agriculture","tag-biobased","tag-biodegradable","tag-bioeconomy","tag-circulareconomy","tag-euprojects","supplier-aimplas-asociacion-de-investigacion-de-materiales-plasticos-y-conexas","supplier-associacio-comarcal-urgell-dajuda-al-minusvalid","supplier-bio-mi-drustvo-sa-ogranicenom-odgovornocu","supplier-bioextrax-ab","supplier-cedrob-s-a","supplier-cidetec","supplier-farrelly-mitchell","supplier-fundacja-unimos","supplier-general-hydroponic-europe","supplier-greenovate-europe-eeig","supplier-inkoa-sistemas","supplier-lukasiewicz","supplier-organic-waste-systems-ows","supplier-technopackaging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93991"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=93991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}